(Photo from Salvatore Vuono - FreeDigitalPhotos.net)
As our church ventures through the Book of James, we are reading and learning about how to think through and respond to trials. In the next several posts I want to offer some reflections on the topic of trials. Today, we are going to talk about having perspective horizontally. In future posts, we will talk about the reality of pain and how, regardless of how 'small' our sufferings might seem, they are very real. We will also address the question of eternity and how pain fits into everlasting life.
When we go through trials or when we are suffering, there is a temptation to 'catastrophize', to make our situation into something that is all consuming and something that will never end. The reality is that while this may be the case (i.e. someone suffering from a debilitating disease that will end in death), for most of us our trials are temporary and they do not have to be consuming. This is where horizontal perspective is important.
The other morning I was driving with my two kids when my tire went flat. There were several frustrations because of this situations. First, I was going to be late to work and I had a lot to do. Secondly, trying to change a tire with two children in the car isn't exactly a cake-walk. Thirdly, the lug nuts that keep the tire on were so tight that I actually bent the wrench. Fourthly, I has popped one of our snow tires - tore it on the side - so there was no patching it. And lastly, Jenny and I had just spoken a few days ago about having to take the snow tires off and now we will have to replace a snow tire that had only seen a few months of use. Needless to say, I was feeling agitated.
But this is where horizontal perspective pays off. You may be familiar with the phrase 'first-world problems'. This is a catch-phrase to explain problems that those of us who live in first-world nations deal with i.e. microwaves breaking, iPhone screens getting cracked, our plow guy coming really late after a snow storm. While it's a funny way to think about these challenges, there is so much truth in calling them what they are - problems that are most often very silly compared challenges like desperate poverty, sickness, hunger, war, and the list goes on.
And even in my own life, I was forced to think about the challenges of the day (flat tire and its implications) compared to the challenges of a young girl from my home church - not even 10 years-old - who has had cancer, a lung removed, multiple operations, radiation, and chemotherapy. My flat tire is a joke compared to her past two years. Now, I want to be clear - feeling emotional pain is real even if it's not life-altering like someone else's problems (and we will address this in the future), but God does give the majority of us the ability to look around and say, "I have some challenges and trials, but they are small compared to what some other's have to deal with."
There is freedom that comes from taking stock of the challenges others face in life. Oftentimes, whether in another part of the globe or even in our our neighborhood, other people are facing challenges that are 10-fold what we face. And when we gain perspective, we are able to have gratitude for God's grace toward us as well as empathy for what others are journeying through.
Then we can mourn with those who mourn (Romans 12:15).
When in a trial, horizontal perspective can be an enormous blessing.
- tC
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