Perspective

A farmer was approached by a stranger one day and was asked how much he thought his prize Jersey cow was worth.  The farmer thought for a moment, looked the stranger over, then asked, “Are you the tax assessor or has she just been killed by your car?”  The farmer knew the power of perspective.

Perspective is your outlook on life, and it makes all the difference in the world.  Your perspective determines your outcome in life, your destiny.

Perspective is the difference between Judas Iscariot and Paul.  Judas, seeing life through eyes of greed and betrayal, hanged himself (Matt. 27:5).  However, Paul, even when he was imprisoned, saw life from a spiritual viewpoint, saying, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Phil. 4:13).

Perspective is very important in the shaping of our lives, but our perspective must be true.  Ecclesiastes 2:14 reads, “The wise person has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness….”  Not all of us view life from a true perspective, with our “eyes” in our head.  Too often our perspective is all wrong.

Ask yourself…

• Is your perspective cloudy? Are you so confused you can’t really see anything clearly?  If you do not clean the windows of your soul, so to speak, you will never be able to find direction in your life.
• Are you a pessimist? Is everything dark and nothing seems to work out?  If so, things will always look bad.  Alexander Pope said, “All seems infected that the infected spy, / As all looks yellow to the jaundiced eye.”
• Do you look at everything from a selfish point of view? Do you manipulate people   and expect the world to revolve around you?  You will be disappointed.
• Do you have a worldly perspective? Are you, as Paul puts it, a “natural” man? (1 Cor. 2:14).  If so, you cannot understand the things of the Spirit of God.

Take a spiritual outlook.  Paul wrote, “For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace” (Rom. 8:6).  Change your perspective so that it has a spiritual outlook, and you will have life and peace!