On Needles and Perspective

Matthew 10:39

Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.

Matthew 6:33

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

I hate needles, I always have. I get it...they can be life saving, but to me they are terrifying shards of sharp metal that if I had my way wouldn't get anywhere near my epidermis. When I was little I was so fearful, I'd start crying in the car on the way to the doctor's office. To convince me to sit still my mom would turn my head and say "Look at me! Focus on me..." and then she'd make a silly face or tell me a story and I'd barely even notice the tiny prick that followed.

Life's alot like that. Have you ever found yourself late at night unable to sleep and obsessing about the thousands of things you have on your plate that day? I have, so many times. There are so many problems daily that pull for our attention that it's hard to focus on anything else, but focusing more on the problem doesn't make it go away--most of the time it only makes it worse because it becomes all we see.

This was Jesus' point. The more we focus on our own life, the more it becomes all we can see--every problem, every trial, every situation is magnified times 100 and suddenly we're lost in a labyrinth of problems and emotions that we can't seem to navigate our way out of. We get tunnel vision.

Jesus told us the way out-- "Seek first the Kingdom," "Lose your life"--shift our focus. By doing so we broaden our perspective and can see things the way they truly are and we also align ourselves to be in right relationship with our Creator, becoming more who we really are.

The view from the Mountain and the Valley are vastly different. One breeds hope, the other despair. By shifting from focusing on our problems to focusing on the Kingdom of God, we begin to truly find freedom, and that's beautiful.