“What you choose to focus on determines what you miss.”
Perspective is a choice.
It requires great awareness. What lenses do I have on? What angle am I viewing it from? Do I need to move forward? Step back? Look around? Move?
I went for a hike on part of the Appalachian Trail yesterday with a dear friend and we ran into a Christian man who has 12 adopted children at home from Ethiopia, China, and the US, 4 of which we’d already met and prayed over further down the trail!
We talked about our shared faith in Jesus and he shared how he’d been reading Psalm 61 that morning, which says in verse 2: “Lead me to the rock that is higher than I…”
In times of uncertainty, when we cannot see what is up ahead, we must seek the Lord and ask for His wisdom and perspective.
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” – Isaiah 55:9
I often find myself so deep in a situation it’s hard to see the forest through the trees. It’s in those moments, when I’m tempted to get frustrated or angry, that I ask the Lord to help me zoom out and give me a 30,000 ft view.
Lord, what are you doing? What are you seeing that I can’t?
With every passing day, as I’ve examined my own perspectives, the Lord has showed me that this has everything to do with my attitude in my circumstances and what I choose to focus on.
If you want to focus on negative things, you will look for them everywhere and I assure you, you will find them.
But what are you missing in the process?
If you choose to have a heart of gratitude… seeking to find the blessings in all circumstances and situations around you, you will find them also!
Choosing joy doesn’t mean there is an absence of pain or grief. Choosing joy simply says I hold onto the truth that in all situations, there is something significant to behold. There is love. There is beauty. There is hope.
What have you chosen to focus on?
In the midst of uncertainty, His presence remains and His love is unwavering.
Can you see Him? Can you see what He’s up to?
If not, look around. Look closer. Look beyond.
Move.
