Perspective

We all have those days where nothing seems to go as planned, right? Monday morning, for me, was one of those days. I had made big plans to get a lot of work done on my rental house while the kids were at school. I dropped them off and ran to pick up a floor sander that I was renting with the intent that it’d be a super productive morning. Everything went smoothly until I unloaded the seemingly 500 pound machine and plugged it in. It ran for a couple seconds and died. I tired multiple outlets, multiple cords, called the company twice and finally gave up after nearly two hours of messing around with it AFTER I’d just spent an hour and a half driving to pick it up. The morning that I had planned to be so productive was gone.
And then I made arrangements to rent another sander, but that included another two hours driving to pick it up and get back home. And on the way, with my mind on all that needed to get done and the anxiety of worrying about getting it done by the end of the week, I came upon a semi in the middle of the road. At first I thought, ‘What now?!? He’s in MY way!’ And then, as I got closer, I realized that he was stuck on the road. The bottom of his grain truck had gotten wedged onto the curved road when he tried to pull onto it.
Suddenly my perspective shifted. As much of a pain and hassle and frustration it was for my morning to be wasted, I thought that he had it much rougher than me. It felt like God smacked me on the side of the head and pushed the perspective of MY problems, MY time, MY agenda into a different light. I remembered that it could have been much worse.
And I think most of us have experienced that. And I don’t want to discount my pain or your pain because others have it so much worse, but I do think we need to always keep perspective. Your pain and my pain is real and important to you and me, but, in the end, there are always bigger things to keep in mind.
The apostle Paul, in the context of not feeling qualified enough for ministry, writes in 1 Corinthians 2.2, “For while I was with you, I made up my mind to forget everything except Jesus Christ and especially his death on the cross.” (GNT) At the end of the day, Paul focused on Jesus and specifically on Jesus and his death on the cross. I think when we keep that as our primary focus, no matter how frustrating, awful or concerning life can be, everything can be in its proper perspective. God bless.