Two people can see the exact same thing and have an opposite perspective. One of my favorite authors, the late Tony Hillerman, wrote mostly about the people and cultures of the American southwest. He was once riding the Santa Fe Chief railroad west from New Mexico towards California, watching from the observation car as the Zuni Buttes and Mount Taylor came into view.
Hillerman looked at the spectacular country and saw colors and shapes that thrilled him. The changing golds and tans of the wind-carved mesas contrasted with the blue sky and its billowing white thunderclouds. He felt the unfolding landscape had emptied his heart of all worries.
Next to him were three businessmen in suits, presumably from somewhere back east, and as they looked at the majestic views the men became silent. Then one of them said to the others, "My God, why would anyone want to live out here?" In the following moments of silence, Hillerman recalls thinking, "My God, why wouldn't everyone want to live out here?" (Reader's Digest, July/August 2012, p. 146)
People can see the exact same thing but come up with a totally different perspective. Consider the Church's history. One sees the saving Gospel, universities, hospitals, music and the arts, orphanages, the Bible and scientific discovery. Another, looking at the same evidence, sees the Crusades, cold dogmatism, the Inquisition, immorality and oppression. The second person asks, "Why in the world would anyone want to be a Christian?" while the first asks, "Why wouldn't everyone want to be a Christian?"
Both views may seem equally valid but both are not. Humanism says, "My viewpoint is just as good as yours," but Christianity says, "God's viewpoint is the right one." Our holy and merciful God gives us minds to learn, analyze and decide. When sin came into the world, our minds became selfish, myopic and greedy. Good was replaced with opinion, love with lust, and wisdom with foolishness. Thanks be to God Jesus earned forgiveness of sins for us.
Despite what people may think, God has the last Word: “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts," declares the Lord. (Isaiah 55:9)
How does your perspective compare with God's?
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