March 14, 2008

Perspective can be liberating or it can hold us captive. A difference of perspective can be what binds us to another or what creates the rift that drives us apart.

Poet Li-Young Lee opened perspective’s window for me in his poem, Descended from Dreamers. After mentioning the stories of Joseph and Abraham, he closes with these words.

“’Why are you crying’, my father asked in my dream, in which we faced each other, knees touching, seated on a moving train. Looking out the window, one of us witnessed what kept vanishing, while the other watched what continually emerged.”

It struck me that many times we collectively experience change from these two perspectives. And because these two perspectives feel so different from each other, the same event can produce quite varied emotions among us.

Do you live with anticipation for what is coming or is your dominant emotion sorrow for what has passed? It’s all a matter of perspective.

“Look! I am sending my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. Then the Lord you are seeking will suddenly come to his Temple. The messenger of the covenant, whom you look for so eagerly, is surely coming,” says the LORD Almighty.” Malachi 3:1

With full commitment,
Pastor Steve