PERSPECTIVE

Are you an Optimist, a Pessimist or might you call yourself a Realist? Whatever you see yourself as being has a lot to do with your success in life and your relationships with others. The way that your life goes largely depends upon your PERSPECTIVE. However, you cannot control many of the things that happen in your life. The recent emphasis on EARTH DAY should remind us of this simply truth. We do have some impact on our local environment, but many things are just beyond our ability to control. We need PERSPECTIVE!

For example, we cannot influence the Jet Stream winds which steer the forces that control our climate (and the weather effects all of us); we cannot make it rain or not rain (and we are dependent upon water); we cannot make the sun shine less or brighter (and we are dependent upon sunlight); we cannot effect the stars in the sky (and we often do not even pay attention to them); we cannot control the heart of another (but we can impact them). We need PERSPECTIVE!

If you have ever read the Bible book of Job, you can see (among many lessons) the importance of PERSPECTIVE. I encourage you to read this book, and particularly Job chapters 38-42. That will give you GOD’S PERSPECTIVE though the record of what HE specifically said to Job, who had gone through SO MANY TRIALS from nature, people close to him, and even personally (all directed by what GOD allowed Satan to do in his case). Running from your trials will not deliver you from them. Attacking your trials (or those bringing them to you) will not accomplish what GOD intends to teach you through them. You must “TRUST GOD and HIS WORD no matter what” (this is what I said to my children on 04/21/07, just before my more intense trials began) and have HIS PERSPECTIVE to live through your trials. Only then, will you learn and be able to handle whatever happens in life.

What PERSPECTIVE do you think Seung-Hui Cho had? His thinking was not in line with reality and GOD’S CREATED ORDER, and so he turned to his own way of thinking. This, of course, was motivated by the enemy of us all (the Devil). Seung-Hui Cho first tried to withdraw from his problems, then he tried to blame and attack others–and he ultimately did, sending 32 others and himself into eternity and impacting countless other lives through his horrible attack. Seung-Hui Cho needed GOD’S PERSPECTIVE. He needed to FEAR GOD ABOVE ALL (see the first lesson in my “Top Ten”). We needed to do more to help him have THIS PERSPECTIVE and we need to also do more to help others have THIS PERSPECTIVE, especially if we hope to prevent such a tragedy again.

You can see more of what I mean there from all that is written on this site, including the poem linked above (Learn to Prevail—32 to 33) that I was led to write on the first anniversary (04/16/08) of this terrible tragedy.