Where are you Standing

“Find another angle, take a different view

For Blessing may be in the trial before you”

Loren Thornburg

 

Have you ever noticed how where you are standing can completely change the way you view the outcome?  The beauty of TV is that they can show you many different angles of the same situation.  As I watched the baseball game I saw a homerun hit that looked foul from the first angle, but from a different angle they showed it was clearly a homerun and in fact not even close to being foul.  It struck me how often this probably occurs yet how seldom I take time to view the next angle.  I am so quick to see things from my view, from where I am standing.  Although we may not have the luxury of another camera into our lives we still can take time to see the other angles if only we take time and awareness to first realize that there are other angles.  Things are not always what they seem.  What appears to be a horrible situation may turn out to be a blessing in disguise, if only we step back to see the other angle.

 

“You made men ride over our heads; We went through fire and water, 

Yet you brought us out into a place of abundance.”

Psalm 66:32 

 

God loves to bring us to His abundance! He loves to bless us!   But that abundance and blessing does not come in the way that we think it would or should.  Usually it comes following times of much trial and pain; after the job loss, the depression, the relationship struggle, the failed attempt, the sickness.  It comes after those times we feel things are consuming us, over our heads, where we feel we are drowning and burning in the flames of the situation around us.  Often when I have come to the place of abundance I wonder why I worried so much, fretted so hard, and let the previous times consume me as they did.  God wishes the same thing!  He wishes that I would take another angle, His angle, and look over His shoulder and see things as He sees them.  For from where He is standing He sees beyond the trial to the blessing, He sees beyond the pain to the abundance, He sees not as it seems but as it is.  Where are you standing?  Take another angle...His angle...what do you see? 

Farsighted

“Don’t miss tomorrow’s victory because you weren’t willing to endure today’s pain.”

Loren Thornburg

So often we live such shortsighted lives.  We can’t see past today.  We feel pain and we want it to go away rather than have its way in our lives.  It’s much like the story of the man who seeing the moth struggle to emerge from his cocoon thought he would help it by cutting the last section of the cocoon.  Yet what he found was that the moth was unable to fly because it’s wings had not been fully formed.  It was in the pressure of coming through such a small hole that enabled the moth to fly as it was intended to.  How often we act similarly to our pain as well as the pain of others. We want to rescue and relieve and so we intervene not realizing that we are taking the very thing that is bringing us to more of who we were made to be. Let us endure the pain and suffering of today knowing it is enabling us to fly.  

“Consider it wholly joyful, my brethren, whenever you are enveloped in or encounter trials of any sort or fall into various temptations. Be assured and understand that the trial and proving of your faith bring out endurance and steadfastness and patience. But let endurance and steadfastness and patience have full play and do a thorough work, so that you may be [people] perfectly and fully developed [with no defects], lacking in nothing.”

James 1:2-4 AMP

God wants to have full play in your life.  He desires to do a thorough work so that you may be complete, lacking in nothing, but, that takes trial, temptation, suffering and pain.  I wish there was another way.  And there is but it doesn’t bring the joy, the fullness and the completeness that God’s way does.  So then it becomes a matter of being willing.  Am I willing to let Him have His way even when it hurts, even when I don’t see what it is achieving, and even when I don’t know why it has to be like this?  Only when I remember who He is can I stay willing.  He is all knowing, all powerful and all good.  I don’t want to miss anything that He in His all knowing power and goodness wants to do.  I would hate to have endured the pain this long only to miss tomorrow’s victory because I wasn’t willing to endure today’s pain another day. So let us let Him have His way in our lives as well as the lives of those around us. Let us see beyond what is in front of us.  For we can know whether we feel like it or not He is saying, “I have victory for you My Child if you will trust me with this pain.”  

Don't Miss It

“You are surrounded with reasons to be thankful if only you would look.”
Loren Thornburg


Don’t miss it! Do you see it? There are reasons everywhere…right in front of you, behind you, before you, it’s all around you. Even in that place of struggle, even in the place of tears, even here there are so many reasons to be thankful. Often we miss them in the name of entitlement, pride, and expectations. Somewhere along the way we came to believe that the world owes us. Yet, no where did the world sign you a contract stating that things would always be easy, go as you want, and that you would get everything you want. And if you did well I hate to break it to you, but you were misinformed. The other bad news is that the opposite is true…there will be pain, there will be times when things don’t go your way and you won’t always get what you want. But the good news is there is reason to be thankful!!! There are many reasons that we miss on the road of never enough. But if you will stop with me and look you will find…you are blessed…right here…wherever that is!!

“How amazing are the deeds of the Lord! All who delight in him should ponder them.”
Psalm 111:2 NLT

God didn’t have to. He didn’t have to do all those amazing deeds! He didn’t have to save you, He didn’t have to love you, He didn’t have to bless you in all the ways that He has…but He did. He did and He wanted to! So often we miss it. We miss all the ways that He has shown up in our lives, has always been present in our lives, guided, provided and protected. We miss it looking at the ways that we think He didn’t show up, didn’t speak, didn’t guide, didn’t provide and didn’t protect in our timing. Sometimes we get caught looking there so long that we miss the ways He is meeting us. Let’s not miss it anymore! Lets ponder all the ways that God didn’t have to, but He did. He has given us so much to be thankful for…don’t miss it…look for it…ponder it!