Its All How You Look at It

I am reading Mike Breen and Walt Kallestad’s book: A Passionate Life. It mentions the importance of having the right perspective towards life. One of the things they say is that "as followers of Jesus, we are called continually to change how we think.” We need to build a framework of perspective about our lives. Too often, we see the things that happen to us as bad things and try to escape them, and not face the truths the circumstances are trying to teach us. We need to view the events in our lives from a faith perspective. In essence, we need to experience the paradigm shift of faith.
Being a Christian means thinking differently than the world thinks. The Apostle Paul in the Epistle of First Corinthians calls it folly, but he means that to the world outside of Christ it looks like foolishness, but in actuality it is the wisdom of God. Wisdom is merely making the right choices in life. Something we all want to do. However, you cannot make the right decisions, unless you have the all the facts. Yet, in reality, we never have all the facts but just enough to make the decision that seems right to us at the time.
The first thing we need to do is to have a change in our thinking. Rather than looking at things from a negative perspective, we need to see them in the context of our lives. For example, just think of the word repentance and many negative thoughts start to manifest themselves. However, repentance is a beautiful word for it anticipates grace and forgiveness. Repentance is about changing our lives for the better. It is more a turning towards God than a turning away from sin. The focus is not on sin, but on the purity and loveliness of God. Likewise, when we think of suffering, we get negative thoughts as well. Yet, the Scripture tells us to consider it pure joy, when we suffer (James 1:2). This is the paradigm shift we need to make in our thinking.
The bad things that happen to us are learning moments. They happen for a reason, and it is for our good (Romans 8:28). Whatever, we are going through has a purpose in our lives. No woman thinks that the pains of childbirth are fun, but afterwards the joy of the baby’s presence overshadows the grief and pain experienced. Even things like depression are learning events. Our minds are being altered by the experience. The worldly thinking says, “Don’t be ridiculous! This is foolish talk.” But the wisdom of God and our faith sees the situation differently; it is a moment of spiritual growth and a process directed by the hand of a loving heavenly Father for our good. Why do we get so upset about trials and suffering? It is because we think that what is happening to us is bad and without purpose. As the book, "A Passionate Life" points out: “Why am I worrying about this when I know God is in control?" As the Bible states, “Are you not much more valuable than other creatures on earth, which God looks after?” God treasures and loves us more than anything else in the universe. If things come our way that we cannot understand, we can in a step of faith say, “This is in God’s hands and he loves me with an everlasting love. All will be well.”