Perspective is everything! We look at everything from one of two perspectives. Either fear or faith, loss or gain, progress or failure, lack or contentment, love or hate. Perspective governs attitude, and attitude determines choices, and choices determine outcomes. Change your perspective and you will change your life. As true as this statement is, we must also give consideration to what determines our perspective. Perspective is always determined by position. Where we are positioned dictates what we see and how we see it. For example, if I were to have you stand in front of a four-sided box with different images or text on each side and ask you to describe what you were looking at, you would give me the description of the side you were facing. Your description would be different than that of someone who was looking from a different position. But what if you were able to take a position to see the box from multiple angles at once? You would have a more complete perspective of what you were looking at because your position would give you a greater perspective; otherwise, you would only have a very narrow perspective, and your understanding of what you were looking at would be limited at best.
When it comes to our lives, we need to examine our position because it is dictating our perspective, and most of us are seeing things from a position of limited understanding. We are only understanding things as we experience them, and our interpretation of our experiences is based on limited knowledge or false knowledge. We often define a reality for ourselves that handicaps our growth, neutralizes our zeal, weakens our faith, troubles our peace, and hardens our love. We quickly take a position of being a victim in a cruel and unfair world where life seems to devour us. We recognize people as problems and struggles as indefinite. All of this becomes the governing influences of our choices, which then petrifies our perspective, chaining us to a reality of torment, sorrow, disappointment, frustration, and hopelessness. We quickly turn to making choices that we hope will control the circumstances of our lives, whether people or events, forcing them to turn in our favor while our lives inwardly are out of control or, worse, being controlled.
How can we break this cycle of self-destruction? We must learn to change our position so we know and understand things not according to how an experience makes us feel but according to the purpose and plan God has given them. And that life is not the total sum of our experiences on earth; it is the essence of who we are, and our experiences are tailoring our life for eternity. For example, tragedy is meant to produce endurance, so we may triumph in tragedy. Challenges are opportunities disguised as problems to test the quality of our character and present us with options of growth and advancement. Loss is the removal of what is taking the space of what is meant to be gained and is greater. Our position is one that should be in Christ. Christ is not an icon of rituals and traditions. He is not an idea we hold onto for comfort and support. He is the King of kings and Lord of lords. He is the Creator of all things, and all things are held together by Him and in Him. He is the glory of resurrected life. When we take our position in Him our perspective changes and when our perspective changes our life changes.
Here is what Paul wrote concerning this in Colossians 3:1-4 “Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.”
And again he wrote, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:4-7)