He can’t see the forest for the trees.
Step back and look at the big picture.
What’s under the surface?
That’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Don’t take that at face value.
These are just a few of the more popular ways to state that losing perspective is not healthy. But it’s hard work to look beneath the surface or walk out of the trees. Stepping back from the granular to look at the whole can be terrifying, especially when a person is embedded within the system or culture. It’s almost impossible for an individual to extract themselves enough or pull back far enough.
Spending ten days in Sri Lanka, a country far older than the US, dominated by eastern rather than western thought, affords a unique opportunity to do just that, step back. I have long believed that we can only form truly educated opinions if we stretch ourselves and attempt to learn a new way of looking at life. It resets a person’s perspective and redefines what is important or worth getting worked up about.
One of the things that this time in Sri Lanka has given me is a much-needed reality check. At breakfast this morning, several of us talked about some of the challenges facing Christians in the USA, and how jarring it is to think about them after seeing the life-and death struggle here. As important as it is to advocate for human rights, whether the right to marry the one you love or the right to speak and teach and alongside men or the right to ask questions and insist on leaders being held accountable for their actions or the right to be treated with dignity and respect no matter one’s skin color or heritage, let’s be honest for a minute. These issues pale in comparison to starvation, preventable illness, the lack of clean drinking water, slavery, and AIDS. They just do.
I keep thinking of something Matthew Paul Turner said, after he told us the heart-wrenching messages her received from same-sex couples after posting about the Chick-fil-A protests. “Maybe all of us, on all the sides of these issues, need to bring it down a few notches.”
Hearing the stories of women being taken advantage of because they are poor and uneducated and without any social or legal standing is a healthy reminder to me. I don’t mean to diminish the real injustices that take place every day in North America. But I do have an education, the right to vote and buy land and take a case to the courts and I have a voice, both online and in my community.
It’s not as if the action I take in the US (or anywhere really) give anyone a humanity they didn’t have before. Tony Jones pointed out more than once that anything we do to bring people up does not give them more value or more humanness or more of the imago dei than they already have inherently. We, each one of us, bears the image of God. Our work is to see it, acknowledge it, and help others to see it too.
I’m just thinking out loud here, but I get myopic in my easy life. I allow myself to indulge in outrage over things that, if placed on a more global scale, don’t merit quite such a degree of outrage. I’m not saying they aren’t important, or that we don’t need to keep working. I’m not saying that we’re close to where we need to be on these issues. We have much work yet to do.
But so many are so far behind. If I can hold onto that bigger picture, maybe I will spend more of my energy and passion advocating for those who truly have no rights as human beings at all. Maybe I’d be a little more patient and a little more gracious towards those who disagree with me.
What do you think?
Oh Joy. This is so good. It’s a take-away from these trips, even for those of us who’ve just traveled with you virtually.
In my life, I’ve found I constantly need perspective checks. Otherwise, I also grow myopic. It should be a burning passion for those of us who follow Jesus – to hold each other up to the glory of eternity and gently ask, “What matters in this light?”
Kelly @ Love Well recently posted..Love is Never Small
Joy, that’s why my hubs and I are SO passionate about everyone spending even a week serving in another country. It gives us a paradigm shift of just how BIG God is, where we fit in the BIGGER picture and how much MORE we have to learn and open our eyes too. Thank you for taking us along on your journey.
Kristin
LoveFeast Table recently posted..Havaianas ~ Last Days Of Summer ~ Giveaway
Oh that everyone could have this kind of realistic perspective, a balanced world-view. I imagine a different world under that concept. Thank you for the reality check too!
Arianne recently posted..On turning 8 years old
Thanks for being a perspective-giver this week, Joy. Thank you.
Annie recently posted..Summer’s End
May I just say how absolutely refreshing this post was, especially after the political pettiness that is absolutely tearing me apart right now? Thank you. For sharing LIFE.
Kelly Sauer recently posted..When Real Life is Only Dust and Ashes
Oh I just am so grateful to read your words right now. Sometimes the conversations amongst many believers around me leaves me asking, “Really?!” Really, these are the things that we’re worried about, fighting about, getting made about??? What about 127 million orphans? What about famine and genocide and lives lost every day for lack of clean water? THAT should enrage us. THAT should set us into motion, to change. Thank you so much for putting it out there. Pray many hearts would be opened to truth through your boldness in the journey
blessings, lauren mills
Lauren @ {{mercyINK}} recently posted..Seasons & Surrender: A Prayer for Young Mothers
Yes, yes, yes. Thank you, Joy, for highlighting this oh-so-true point. I think MPT’s ‘dialing it back’ is a grand idea. BUT . . . I will gently add that what we deal with here is connected to what you’re seeing there. Yes, we’re on the other end of the spectrum in terms of real, physical suffering. Amen and amen. But – and I don’t think I can state this too strongly, actually – the treatment of women and other minority groups is hugely important to ALL of us, east and west, poor and rich. And it’s this piece, most especially about women, that needs to be an ongoing concern for all of us. IF women in the 2/3 world are educated, empowered, given permission and funding to begin micro businesses, informed about good pre-natal care, etc., etc., – the difference in the overall economy and well-being of the entire country are enormous. I don’t think there is any single issue of greater importance – right up there with clean water & mosquito nets. Educate the girls. Fight for their right to be whole people, not property. And here, on our shores, that means quietly but firmly saying ‘no’ to discrimination wherever we find it. It’s the same truth and we can surely be less strident in our declarations on this side of the ocean between here and there. Yet I would still argue that the issues are connected, at their heart.
Diana Trautwein recently posted..Things Change. . . A Mixed Media Post
I agree it is always good to go to a third world country. That is why I love to go on mission trips. It put things in a different perspective. Which helps us to see things differently every where we go. I’m glad you had the experience. I hope to do the same soon. Glad you will be back soon! Thanks for sharing!
I needed to hear this perspective tonight! MPT is right, we all need to bring it down a few notches. I get so easily passionate about things that probably don’t have as much eternal impact as I would like them to, and could instead focus that same passion and energy on improving the lives of others. Thanks for sharing your journey, Joy!
Melissa recently posted..God’s best laid plans