The Gift of the Ordinary
Day One - The Miracle of Perspective
Hot coffee, cats on the ledge, the glassed-in porch invites me to stay a little longer – a quiet morning in the presence of God, nature and His Word.
Thoughts turn to the day ahead. Is my lesson plan ready? I wonder how in the world I can meet retention goals and entertain the students and actually teach something. I suddenly feel powerless over the task ahead of me like making bricks without straw. I pray the same old prayer that I’ve prayed a thousand times before, “O God, I need a miracle!”
My thoughts turn again. This time to Gideon in the winepress. Now here was a man who needed a miracle.
Judges 6:12-13 ”When the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, he said, ‘The LORD is with you, mighty warrior.’ ’But sir,’ Gideon replied, ‘if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all His wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, ‘Didn’t the LORD bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the LORD has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian.”
Now, Gideon was treading grain in a pit because the Midianites had been raiding and plundering the people of God. He was asking that most popular of questions, “Where is God in my circumstances?”
I know that Gideon was about to receive a change in perspective. As I ponder my own circumstances I consider that God might say to me too, “The LORD is with you mighty warrior.” This is Bible language for “It’s not about you, and besides, we have bigger fish to fry.” Hmmm. Down in my pit I’ve gotten awfully self-absorbed. But God wants to change my perspective.
I start to ask some other questions. ”Does what I’m doing please you Lord?” ”Does my attitude match the attitude you want me to have?” ”Am I walking what I am talking?” ”Am I influencing the people around me for the Kingdom of God?” ”Am I allowing the rule and the reign of Jesus Christ to have a significant impact on my workplace?”
Wow. Suddenly, retention goals and lesson plans fade away. I surrender my life to you Lord. Once again. All of it. All of me.
And I realize that God has performed the miracle – not in my circumstances but in me!
Lord, thank you for giving me the grace to see myself the way that You see me. Thank you for eternal perspective, Kingdom perspective.
Susan, refreshing as ALWAYS is your insight into what most certainly
becomes the tediously unvarying routine of the mundane, short of
a Kingdom perspective… And that’s the only perspective that guards
against deception and the pride of self-focus. How intoxicating is the
fragrance that transmogrifies the atmosphere around us as we surrender
and allow God’s Kingdom to collide with our own.
This principle of self-absorption is really, really BIG! The issue is at the heart of almost every place of unsettledness in my soul. Somehow, almost every time, I become the center of my universe again! I think this must be part of the gift of Adam and Eve to us from their “bad choices” in the Garden of Eden. In other words, it must be human nature (in the unredeemed state) to be self-absorbed. But now that I’ve been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb there is a remedy for my fallen nature! And you describe it beautifully, Susan. Back to the cross I go, surrendering again to Jesus, allowing Him to do in me what I cannot do in myself. Praise God for His incredible patience (and persistence!) with me!!