Two Dangerous Things: Cars and Perspective

In a grassy patch beside westbound Interstate-40 lie two marvels of modern man's ingenuity now reduced to mangled hulking masses resembling a giant coke can crushed in the fist of some angry, unseen force. Nearby an ambulance sits, lights not flashing, rear door ajar. Farther back police cruisers idle stacked in neat rows across both lanes. In the very middle of all this - as if the very essence of this scene hinged on it's centrality - there on the paved shoulder a white sheet covers another marvel, only this one is of God's design. Officers and paramedics are milling about, talking, taking notes, examining. No one is rushing to the aid of the marvel under the sheet, no one frantically pumping it's chest, no one yelling "STAT!". There's no need. The marvel has ceased being marvelous. As I pass by headed the opposite way, this is my perspective.

But there is another one. There is the perspective of the hundreds of other travelers crawling along in the traffic created by the crash, now backed up for miles and being diverted onto side roads at the previous exit. There is no crash that they can see. They see only stopped cars, blinking brake lights. Their minds are on angry managers, missed flights, full inboxes and ticking clocks. Their mouths are full of coffee and curses - the less of the former, the more of the latter. They do not know of the marvel that has ceased.

If they did would they feel ashamed? How heavy would those curses linger in the air and on their hearts if they were made aware of the mommy or daddy or son or daughter that would never be late for work (or home) again? How often have I been the one unknowingly cursing the dead? (Enough that my shame at this moment is great.)

That's what makes perspective so dangerous - nobody really has any.

Herein lies one of the most important elements for understanding and having "faith". Faith is changing the way you look at things (your perspective) to incorporate the promise that He who has *real* perspective has your situation, whatever it is, under control. With a perspective of this sort, there ought always be more coffee than curses.

Romans 8:28
Hebrews 4:13