Saturday, August 7, 2010

WHAT'S YOUR PERSPECTIVE?

Did the meltdown make you lose your to-die-for-job with all the impeccable pecks and benefits that came with it? Huh! Maybe you broke up with that potential hot (or should I say cool) spouse, when you thought the altar was your next destination, and you were fast approaching age…30, right? (You know getting a good one can be like searching for a needle in a haystack, pele). No, maybe yours was losing that brand new ride that kept you on the top ten gossip list for 3 months? I suspect it is the Omonile who duped you what was left of your tumbled and crumbled investments in stocks, for that land you so wanted to buy, right? Well, if none of these, then for a moment, think about the grueling traffic one has to face on a day to day basis, sometimes it is a miracle to stay motivated and survive.

The past few months have been incredibly challenging for most people. It has been for me as well. It was like I was hitched on some kind of hurricane. No sooner had I survived one than another took me by surprise in quick succession. I was like a drowning man at the time, except that I was not in water. The walls had caved in, but the only difference was that I was not in a cave. I was in my meltdown (I can’t tell you if it is over though). Every day, the mere thought of facing the day leaves me not only exasperated but slightly depressed. I always had a grouse that some of our life’s challenges can be senseless tragedy. I somehow managed to pray and believe, but somehow nothing changed. Like Mother Theresa said “Hope Father doesn’t trust us so much as to give us trials beyond our capacity?”
What life has taught me, if it has taught me anything at all, is that God will not stop life from happening to us; he only gets us through life. A couple of months ago, I wrote about a note on Facebook, of how God uses adversity to heighten our sensitivity to build character in us, to bring wisdom to the not too wise, to strengthen the weak, to fortify our faith. This is what I am expanding in this piece. Life is all about playing with the game that fate dealt with you. It is never too much about punishment but about learning as we go through life.

Let’s face it, sometimes the greatest problems we face are not the very issues, but the perspective we hold about them. Often times our poor perspectives make our adversities self-inflicting and bring us needless battles. On the other hand, our apathy, our inflexibilities, our insensitivities, and our prayerlessness our spiritual anorexia brings us into crisis. Sure Father knows us more than we do know of ourselves. I had set my expectations for myself and when I failed to meet those expectations; I became disappointed and foisted same disappointments on God. Truly, God never fails, only humans fail in their false expectations of God. In the first place, He doesn’t just exit to answer our prayers, but by our prayer we come to discern the mind of God. In the letter to Colossians, 9 verse of the first chapter, Paul said, “…do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.” The significance of prayer is not give to God, our list of wants and needs; that is not wrong in itself, but it places limit on the benefits we can tap from prayers. The whole significance of prayer is that we get hold of the mind of God and that understanding becomes the answer to prayer. It is true that prayer changes things, but most of all prayer changes me and I change things. Again for emphasis sake, the greatest answer to prayer becomes that my perspective is brought into a perfect understanding with God and that alters my views of actual things. In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus said, “Let your will be done; let your kingdom come”, before He said, “Give us this day our daily bread”. We have sort of reversed this; I believe if God’s will is done in our lives, our wants and needs, will fizzle out automatically. This helped me, though my circumstances haven’t changed much, my views of them have.

God is sovereign and is not obliged to use our strategies to meet our needs. God is not easily manipulated by our tears; follow the principles. Save yourself the heartaches and wait on Him for his strategy. We impoverish God in our mind when limit him with out mind. God is not as much interested in our whining as he is of our character. God’s goal is beyond money and trappings of wealth, rather he wants us to become like Christ. Though he cares about our comfort and well being, He values our character more than our comfort and convenience. God does not waste a hurt; there is always a purpose to our crisis. Many times, it is to bring about a paradigm and perspective shift in us. But I prayed, I believed, so what went wrong? Why is life so unfair?

I penned this words a couple of months ago. “I think life can become unfair when we choose to focus on what we don’t have, and let them prevent us from making the most of the little we have. I think life can become unfair when we run a marathon like a 100m dash, and become busted and exhausted, rather than taking the race of life at the pace that is uniquely ours, as to guarantee we arrive alive. I think life can become unfair when we fail to see challenges for what they really are-stepping stones-and see them for what they are not-stumbling blocks. For challenges are not meant to frail us but to firm us. I think life can become unfair when we magnify our problems rather than our God, who can solve the problems. Most of our failures are failures of faith. I think life can become unfair when we choose to see only those who have better living conditions than we do, and forget to see those who have worse living conditions than we have. I think life can become unfair when we focus on those who hurt us, and forget that they are human, and have the tendency to err, while it’s ours to forgive and love again. I think life can be unfair, when we try to set God’s time with our clock rather than set our clock to God’s time.” For He makes all things beautiful in His time, in His time the job will come, the love will come, the child will come, and all you need are already set for an appointed time.”

Now have I stopped believing? Never! Have I stopped praying? Not anytime soon. Have I quit? At least not yet! Challenges are inevitable in life, but misery is optional. The whole essence of this piece is to help us separate what is necessary and what is not in the crisis we face. If you are feeling like I felt, just maybe think about these perspectives. The advantage of speaking in tongues is simply to enable Gods mind bye-pass our mental limitations, but creating a new band width that can get us through the tickling of our limited minds and communicate his will to us.

Love you!

2 comments:

  1. even though life is so tough one should never stop believing...tomorrow is another day. keep up the good work and pls. follow the interface blog. lol

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  2. True talk Bro, I've been feeling like am not a superman too. Could it have been depression? It is a feeling of numbness. But, I won't allow it to propel me to a state of inertia. Just do it! NIKE.

    #pray
    #read the Bible and meditate
    #believe in God's ability to care.
    That is my escape route.

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