Before choosing the small-town life, I lived the first 33 years of my life in a city of nearly one million people. After going for several weeks without any sort of trip out of town, I would begin to forget that this city was actually an island in the middle of the prairie with no city larger than it for nearly a thousand miles. Until I actually got out of it and spent some time away, I would almost forget just how out of place it seemed in its vast, sparsely populated surroundings. In other words, it took a change of perspective for me to realize that I really didn't live in an urban environment as much as I was actually living in an island in the midst of a vast rural expanse.
We humans have the same lack of true perspective about who we really are. Many of us think and act as though somehow the world revolves around us, as though it's entirely subject to how we think and act. Yet only once you get up in an airplane or climb to the top of a mountain and look down upon whatever we have created do you realize just how tiny and powerless we actually are. Even though our influence looks expansive and powerful in the form of infrastructure and development like roads and fields and buildings, it takes only one swipe of the hand of nature for people to (temporarily) realize that they really aren't so mighty after all.
The same realization happens when people with immense fame, power, and/or wealth succumb to illness, disease, or untimely death and no amount of money is able to help them. And even if they overcome for a time, they eventually experience the same uncontrollable, unconquerable fate of all humans: death.
Yet despite constant reminders that we are subject to forces infinitely more mighty than us that we have absolutely no way of controlling, we continue to act as though we're invincible. We have this rebellious spirit toward the outside forces that control us as though we'll someday conquer them or be free from their control. We continue to climb treacherous mountains and build taller buildings in vain attempts to defy the force of gravity. We continue to explore hostile environments in vain attempts to conquer the forces of nature. And we propose theories, write books, and form conferences and committees that actively and purposely seek to undermine the belief by some humans that we are created beings, created by a mighty and unfathomable force that in the English language has been given the name of "God".
Forty or so proponents of this belief, over the course of nearly two millennia, claimed to have been spoken to and even visited by this God and recorded their encounters in numerous books that were eventually coalesced into one volume and given the title of "The Bible". In this Bible, there are numerous accounts of people who thought the world revolved around them or were invincible, only to be put in their place by this mighty God who these authors claim is not only the creator of these people, but also of the world and the entire universe. Some of the people most famously humbled by this God include Job, Jonah, and Saul of Tarsus (later named Paul).
These people realized the hard way just how tiny and powerful they were once they encountered this God, causing the likes of Isaiah and Saul to cower in fear, awe, and reverence. They had a radical change of perspective to the point where they tirelessly stood up for God in the face of ridicule, torture, and even death by those who had not encountered Him. They stood up because they knew that He who they had encountered and experienced was for real. They had experienced a miniscule taste of His indescribable power and realized that they really weren't so mighty after all.
The next time you look at the sun, ask yourself what is keeping our planet from being drawn into its fiery inferno. The next time you draw a breath, ask yourself what will allow your lungs to draw the next breath. The next time you curl and uncurl your fingers, ask yourself what series of physiological, biochemical, and neurological processes and components are responsible for this ability plus how they came to be.
In our modern age, phenomena like these are only considered from the scientific perspective and all other perspectives - especially spiritual - are ignored and even ridiculed. This perspective does not take anything seriously that cannot be quantified, i.e. touched or counted or measured, and will dismiss experiences and emotions for this reason, such as the radical psychological and emotional transformations that countless people have reported throughout history once they've truly opened up to and experienced this God.
Yet this scientific perspective that its proponents claim has all the answers clearly does not. In fact, an honest scientist would admit that at both the macroscopic level (ex. the universe) and the microscopic level (ex. atomic particles and structures), technological advancements have revealed a vastness and complexity to our universe and world never remotely imagined even a decade ago. As one school of thought puts it, our universe and world are "irreducibly complex".
So while those who adhere to the scientific perspective find themselves uncovering more questions than answers with each passing minute, people who have decided to view life from the Christian perspective - at least in my experience - have found more of the bigger questions being answered: I know why I was created. I know the One who created me. I know the meaning life. I also know my fate - and those of non-believers - after this life. And the list goes on.
Perspective changes everything. Because I see myself as truly helpless and powerless apart from God, I know who to turn to when life gets tough. My "crutch" has helped me through numerous struggles that those who say they don't need a "crutch" like God can't seem to find their way through. Or if they do, it's often at a tremendous cost emotionally, physically, and/or financially.
Sure, I put a good effort into everything I do - God gave me a brain and hands and feet, after all - but I stop when I perceive that I'm on a path that God doesn't want me to be on. By doing so, I save an incredible amount of stress and emotional investment in things that are a waste of time and energy so that I can focus on the more important things in life - God, family, friends, (this blog!), etc.
You can continue to plod along with the mindset that you're big and tough enough to conquer any obstacle (even though, once again, you'll never conquer death), or you can realize that you're really not so big and tough after all and that God's help will get you through the struggles of this life. And to top the cake, the Bible also explains how you can enjoy God's presence forever when this life is over. But this realization takes a change of perspective, and this can only be achieved by having an open mind to the idea that the God whom the authors of the Bible wrote is truly for real. Actually, this open-mindedness takes faith, and you can read more about this in other posts of this blog.
We humans have the same lack of true perspective about who we really are. Many of us think and act as though somehow the world revolves around us, as though it's entirely subject to how we think and act. Yet only once you get up in an airplane or climb to the top of a mountain and look down upon whatever we have created do you realize just how tiny and powerless we actually are. Even though our influence looks expansive and powerful in the form of infrastructure and development like roads and fields and buildings, it takes only one swipe of the hand of nature for people to (temporarily) realize that they really aren't so mighty after all.
The same realization happens when people with immense fame, power, and/or wealth succumb to illness, disease, or untimely death and no amount of money is able to help them. And even if they overcome for a time, they eventually experience the same uncontrollable, unconquerable fate of all humans: death.
Yet despite constant reminders that we are subject to forces infinitely more mighty than us that we have absolutely no way of controlling, we continue to act as though we're invincible. We have this rebellious spirit toward the outside forces that control us as though we'll someday conquer them or be free from their control. We continue to climb treacherous mountains and build taller buildings in vain attempts to defy the force of gravity. We continue to explore hostile environments in vain attempts to conquer the forces of nature. And we propose theories, write books, and form conferences and committees that actively and purposely seek to undermine the belief by some humans that we are created beings, created by a mighty and unfathomable force that in the English language has been given the name of "God".
Forty or so proponents of this belief, over the course of nearly two millennia, claimed to have been spoken to and even visited by this God and recorded their encounters in numerous books that were eventually coalesced into one volume and given the title of "The Bible". In this Bible, there are numerous accounts of people who thought the world revolved around them or were invincible, only to be put in their place by this mighty God who these authors claim is not only the creator of these people, but also of the world and the entire universe. Some of the people most famously humbled by this God include Job, Jonah, and Saul of Tarsus (later named Paul).
These people realized the hard way just how tiny and powerful they were once they encountered this God, causing the likes of Isaiah and Saul to cower in fear, awe, and reverence. They had a radical change of perspective to the point where they tirelessly stood up for God in the face of ridicule, torture, and even death by those who had not encountered Him. They stood up because they knew that He who they had encountered and experienced was for real. They had experienced a miniscule taste of His indescribable power and realized that they really weren't so mighty after all.
The next time you look at the sun, ask yourself what is keeping our planet from being drawn into its fiery inferno. The next time you draw a breath, ask yourself what will allow your lungs to draw the next breath. The next time you curl and uncurl your fingers, ask yourself what series of physiological, biochemical, and neurological processes and components are responsible for this ability plus how they came to be.
In our modern age, phenomena like these are only considered from the scientific perspective and all other perspectives - especially spiritual - are ignored and even ridiculed. This perspective does not take anything seriously that cannot be quantified, i.e. touched or counted or measured, and will dismiss experiences and emotions for this reason, such as the radical psychological and emotional transformations that countless people have reported throughout history once they've truly opened up to and experienced this God.
Yet this scientific perspective that its proponents claim has all the answers clearly does not. In fact, an honest scientist would admit that at both the macroscopic level (ex. the universe) and the microscopic level (ex. atomic particles and structures), technological advancements have revealed a vastness and complexity to our universe and world never remotely imagined even a decade ago. As one school of thought puts it, our universe and world are "irreducibly complex".
So while those who adhere to the scientific perspective find themselves uncovering more questions than answers with each passing minute, people who have decided to view life from the Christian perspective - at least in my experience - have found more of the bigger questions being answered: I know why I was created. I know the One who created me. I know the meaning life. I also know my fate - and those of non-believers - after this life. And the list goes on.
Perspective changes everything. Because I see myself as truly helpless and powerless apart from God, I know who to turn to when life gets tough. My "crutch" has helped me through numerous struggles that those who say they don't need a "crutch" like God can't seem to find their way through. Or if they do, it's often at a tremendous cost emotionally, physically, and/or financially.
Sure, I put a good effort into everything I do - God gave me a brain and hands and feet, after all - but I stop when I perceive that I'm on a path that God doesn't want me to be on. By doing so, I save an incredible amount of stress and emotional investment in things that are a waste of time and energy so that I can focus on the more important things in life - God, family, friends, (this blog!), etc.
You can continue to plod along with the mindset that you're big and tough enough to conquer any obstacle (even though, once again, you'll never conquer death), or you can realize that you're really not so big and tough after all and that God's help will get you through the struggles of this life. And to top the cake, the Bible also explains how you can enjoy God's presence forever when this life is over. But this realization takes a change of perspective, and this can only be achieved by having an open mind to the idea that the God whom the authors of the Bible wrote is truly for real. Actually, this open-mindedness takes faith, and you can read more about this in other posts of this blog.
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