Perspective

When you sail into Pointe Noire, Republic of Congo, you sail past many many oil platforms. And as you get closer to the shore you see many ships, specially designed for helicopters to land on, with helipads mounted over the bow. These ships help get workers on and off the oil platforms. Once inside the the protected walls of the port, the 'oil' presence gives way to the usual vast array of container ships. This is a very busy port, so ship after ship is lined up, and on shore, huge areas containing hundreds or thousands of twenty foot containers are clearly visible. These container ships along with a multitude of tug boats and pilot boats form the view out of my window, or should I says windows. Yes, I am lucky to have a cabin with more than one window. At least I do temporarily, because I am cabin sitting for a family who are away so I get to see this busy port scene every morning I wake up. But I used to live in a windowless 6x5 foot space for over a year. Then I was upgraded to a space with a few extra feet and a small window that overlooked the admissions tent on the dock in front of a large concrete wall. Three, over thirty somethings, sharing a cabin (smaller than the bedroom I used to have all to myself back home in England). However, now I have a family cabin on the other side of the ship, so instead of the dock I get to watch container ships being loaded and unloaded, tug boats gently nudging lager vessels in the right direction, fishing boats bringing in their catches. All the comings and goings of a busy port can be viewed from the spacious couch in my new living quarters. It is amazing how it has changed my perspective. If all I had seen was the sail into port, I would have described this place in 'oil' terms. From the other side of the ship I saw patients come and go and I had a hospital perspective. My current cabin gives a proper port perspective. My windowless cabin-space gave no perspective at all, it was dark and I needed artificial light to do anything at all. It felt like I could have been anywhere in the world.......except that not many people, even in prison, live in a windowless cell. But that is another other story and windowless cells are not my point! My point is perspective. Perspective is just that. Perspective. It is not reality. Perspective may affect how we feel about reality but it does not define reality. Whether I can see the oil rigs or not, whether I see the container ships or not, whether I see the patients coming and going from the admissions tent or not, none of that changes the fact that they are there and part of my reality. Even the gloom and dark of the windowless cabin does not negate the reality, even if it feels suffocating and overwhelming. We need to fight for the right perspective. Why? Because it helps us deal better with reality. Recently I have read a few people's blogs, witnessed a few incidents and had a couple of conversations with people. Some of them are struggling. Life is hard sometimes. That is why we need the right perspective. When we feel like we are suffocating in a windowless, dark place, we need to fight for the correct perspective. The biblical perspective which is reality. The reality that God called us here, and He is for us. He loves us and has promised never to leave us or forsake us. He calls us 'overcomers'. It is the enemy who tries to make us think from the perspective that it is all too tough, that maybe we misheard God, maybe we aren't really cut out for this life. Rejection, loneliness, insignificance, fear ......all such thoughts can come pressing in and alter our perspective. And when we are too tired to fight, or too crushed, we need our friends to fight for us and encourage us to get our perspective right. Reality is truth. Right perspective is also truth. But the wrong perspective, or a distorted perspective, or merely only half the perspective....none of these are entirely true. And if they are not truth then they are deception. Lies. I love my new cabin, the new perspective and the feeling of space. In the same way, I love the biblical perspective. The biblical perspective on life gives me hope because it gives me the truth. And the truth gives me power to overcome the lies, deceptions and half-truths that creep around and get me down. My cabin perspective is only temporary, thankfully true biblical perspective is eternal.