Everything Depends On Perspective

It’s amazing how much everything depends on perspective. 

Two old friends get together over coffee—they hadn’t seen each other in a number of years, they’d run into each other in a parking lot, neither had time to talk, but both wanted to catch up, and they quickly decided to set a time and place to meet. So here we are, two old friends catching up over coffee. 

“Man, it’s been a long time—great to see ya, bro! How ya doin’?” 

Seriously—do you mean that? You know that’s a loaded question, right?! 

“Why? What’s up? I mean, you didn’t tell me much when we ran into each other last week.” 

I don’t know…I don’t want to bring you down or anything… 

“No, no,…talk to me, brother,…I mean, why else did we get together? I’d like to know,… What’s happenin’? What’s goin’ on?” 

Well, I don’t know,… I guess lately it just seems like everything’s falling apart… Alright, why don’t I just cut to the chase! I lost my job a year-and-a-half ago with the company I’d been with for over a decade. I’m having a bear of a time trying to find another stable job. The nest egg’s run dry. The house is in foreclosure—I have no idea where we’ll be able to go once that process is complete. The marriage fell apart—turned out we couldn’t handle the ‘for worse’ part,… I can’t afford health insurance for myself and the kids… The creditors and lenders—and now their lawyers—are calling me non-stop. I’m struggling to fill up the gas tank, and I have no clue what I’d do if and when my car breaks down… But other than all that, everything else is just fine! 

“Wow, you’ve got it bad, dude,…no doubt about it! Wish there was something I could do!” 

Well, what CAN you do? I mean I guess there’s only one direction you can go from here, right? My luck’s gotta change at some point… Anyway, I don’t mean to be the heavy here. Listen, enough about me now… How’s everything goin’ with you? 

“Well, I guess my life’s been a bit crazy as well… I, too, lost my job nearly two years ago with the company I’d been with for close to fifteen years; but you know, this has allowed me the opportunity to explore new, more fulfilling directions where I can have a more positive impact on people and organizations. And my retirement funds have run out as well, but we’ve learned to be happy with far less than we had. And my house is also in foreclosure—but for now, today, we have a roof over our heads, and we’re thankful for that. And I’d gone through a divorce recently as well; but I’m seeing things moving in a better direction for my ex now than while we were married, and for this, I’m thankful! And with health insurance and food and utilities—never thought I’d be saying it, but I truly am grateful for the benefits provided by our government for people like us who find ourselves in hard times! And the banks and their lawyers—I find that I can hold them at bay as long as I take the time to update them on our situation—I mean, it’s not like any of us are alone in that boat! And as far as gas prices, boy, we all feel that pain, that’s for sure; but apart from that, I do make sure to change my oil regularly—and that seems to keep the car chuggin’ along pretty well!” 

Well, now, hold on… It looks like our situations are almost exactly the same… So why does it sound so much better when you talk about it? 

“Well, I’d say positive thinking, for one thing—but I really believe there’s much more to it than that… You see, what it comes down to for me, my friend, is faith! It’s a gift, faith is—and I don’t know what I’d do without it! But with faith, I also have God-given confidence that nothing can destroy me because I know that God is in control no matter what! And in faith, I have hope that God has some plan, some objective that I am to be part of! And in faith, I have the drive to make things happen with the blessings I do have! And in faith, I have peace, knowing of no better place to be than resting in God’s hands! And in faith, I have the unquenchable desire to seek God’s presence always, everywhere, in all things, continually inspired by the light of that divine presence! It’s not that faith makes life easy, but it sure makes life a whole lot easier to manage and a whole lot more fulfilling!” 

Yes, it truly is amazing how much everything depends on perspective. 

We are called, all of us, to accept the gift of a faith-based perspective. 

In today’s Gospel text, we are called as disciples, to seek, above all things, the Kingdom of God and the divine righteousness. And as long as we maintain that focus, all other needs will be satisfied! We won’t have to worry about being hungry or thirsty or about having clothes on our backs or a roof over our heads—ALL of our needs will be taken care of, IF…IF we direct our faith-based perspective on the Kingdom of God and the righteousness of God. 

But what does this mean, then, to seek the Kingdom of God and divine righteousness? What should we be looking for? Well, it’s not so much a matter of what we should be looking for as WHOM we should be looking for! The Kingdom of God is at hand—Christ tells us this regularly—and it has nothing to do with castles and moats and towers and radiant, lavish exhibition. The Kingdom of God is at hand, because GOD is at hand! It’s GOD’s presence that defines the Kingdom. 

The word ‘Emmanuel’ represents a key understanding in Christian faith—it’s the Hebrew term that means ‘GOD WITH US’… and I tend to look at this idea as not only ‘GOD WITH US’ but ‘GOD AROUND US’ and ‘GOD WITHIN US’ and ‘GOD THROUGH US’… Because if you can accept the understanding as I do that God is the author of life, then the life that each of us has is a gift from the divine Author. Or another way to look at it—God, the Creator, the divine Artist, continually works on us; God carved us out to be who we were yesterday, God has painted us to be who we are today, and God continues to sculpt us into who we will be tomorrow! And regardless of whether we might see ourselves as a book or a poem or a sculpture or a painting, we are, all of us, unfinished works, works-in-progress, that God has marked indelibly with a divine purpose. 

And just as God continues to create beyond the rim of our unfathomably unfolding universe, God still continues to create within each of us, individually, and within all of us in fellowship with each other—we ARE children of God! As children of God, created by God, we are, then, reflections of God; so that sense of Emmanuel—the sense of God WITH us, and also AROUND us, WITHIN us, and THROUGH us—rings true, not just in our communion with God, but also in fellowship with each other! Living and growing, guided by a faith perspective, it’s increasingly clear that God IS present here with us now and everywhere, at all times! The Kingdom of God IS at hand! 

And as we grow in that presence of God, that deepening sense that the Kingdom of God IS at hand, the quest for divine righteousness, then, naturally follows suit. And Christ expresses divine righteousness in such beautifully simple terms—to love God with all your heart, strength, mind, and soul, and to love your neighbor as yourself. The natural response to Emmanuel—God’s presence and God’s Kingdom all around us—is to fully love both the Creator and His Creation. Seeing God at work within each other and ourselves allows us to live in the light of divine righteousness. 

So this is what it means to seek God’s Kingdom and divine righteousness—Emmanuel and the Great Command to love! Maintain this focus, this faith perspective, and everything else will fall into place—so we’ll have nothing else to worry about again…ever...! Right? No doubt, that would be nice, but life doesn’t exactly work that way. Things happen that are beyond our control—and as well, there are days when even small frustrations will pile up and take us at least momentarily out of our faith perspective. 

And this is OK! The journey toward ongoing awareness of God’s presence and living in the light of divine righteousness is not like a day trip to the beach! It’s a lifelong journey, and no one is expected to get this right 100% right from the start,…or even midway, or even toward the end of that journey for that matter. We relapse—we fall back into patterns of worry and despair and fear and frustration because of the fact that life can become overwhelming. This happens to everyone, without exception. Even Jesus, in His perfection, had His moments of anxiety—the Garden of Gethsemane, for example, where Christ prays in anguish, knowing of the pain and suffering immediately ahead of Him… And even Christ had His feelings of abandonment as He cried out from the cross ‘My God, My God, why have You Forsaken Me?’ 

No, the path of discipleship—the path that allows us to truly see and feel the presence of God all around us and within us and through us…the same path that allows us to embrace the Kingdom of God here and now…and yes, that very same path that allows us to understand what it means to love as God loves—it’s not an easy path. It’s a journey that expects us to be in the world, but not of the world. It’s a way of life that inspires us to focus not on common sense, but on divine sense; and in many ways, this aspect of our faith perspective can even cause us more pain and anguish and frustration than if we chose a more worldly, common sense, everyone-out-for-themselves, dog-eat-dog path. And, just to keep ourselves in check, this worldly sense of what it means to achieve a life of ease rarely translates into true fulfillment, if ever—to be clear, the driving focus that would take us to that life of ease that the world embraces is wrought with so many dangers and pitfalls that by the time we reach that sort of lifestyle, we’ve either emptied ourselves of our souls or filled ourselves up with everything other than God to the point where divine righteousness and the Kingdom of God are no longer at hand. 

At the very least, even if taking on a faith perspective and attempting to follow the path of discipleship may not make life easy, it certainly does make life more manageable. But far, far better than that, it can fill us with a sense of divine presence and righteousness that even the hardships we endure become blessings to us as we discover God’s presence, the Kingdom of God, and divine Spirit, the righteousness of God, in deeper, more fulfilling ways. We open ourselves up, in our hardships, to a more profound relationship with God, and a deeper sense of community with each other. THIS is the dramatic difference that is available to us in our faith perspective! 

And again, it truly IS amazing how much everything depends on perspective! 

We’ll finish out this meditation on today’s lessons with a brief exercise. You’ve probably already seen some strips of colored paper in your pews—the brighter strips say ‘Joys, Praises, & Blessings’ on the end, and the darker strips say ‘Worries, Concerns, & Anxieties’ on the end. Take one of each, if you will, and leave any left over in the pew [for the next service]. And take a pencil (or pen, if you have one), do NOT write down your names on these strips, but write down one thing on your mind for each strip—one thing you’re thankful for on the brighter strip, and one thing that weighs on your heart and mind on the darker strip… Again, no need to write your name... I know of a shared experience from this past week that we can see as both a concern and a joy! 

And then, when you’re all finished—and this next part may fall outside your comfort zones a little bit—but I’d like you to pass your strips from the person closest to the side aisle to the person closest to the center aisle, but HOLD ON, WAIT,…as you’re passing them, look into each other’s eyes… See if you can find God’s presence in each other’s eyes… And if you’re feeling bold enough, and if it helps you to find that divine presence, you can say to each other something like, ‘YOU are GOD’s creation’ or ‘YOU are a child of GOD’ or ‘Because GOD loves you, I love you!’ And ushers, if you could walk down the center aisle and collect these strips, we can bring them all—these Joys and Concerns, these Praises and Anxieties, these Blessings and Worries—before God! 

Brothers and Sisters in Christ, the Kingdom of God IS at hand!!! Seek after God’s Presence, God’s Kingdom, God’s Righteousness, in ALL aspects of your lives, and have faith that God will take care of everything else! 

Amen!