Have you ever been told you need to change your perspective? I used to imagine standing in the other person’s shoes, picturing in my mind what they would see from where they stood in the room. Along with trying to physically put myself in their position I would also try to imagine how they may have woken up that morning, what they may be worried about, what past regrets and memories may be fueling the current day. It has been a wonderful exercise and it allows me to more readily show grace to people who intentionally or inadvertently inconvenience me.
It took me a lot longer to learn how to shift my perspective when the only one in my way was myself.
We don’t recognize how often our eyes shift in perspective throughout the day. While looking at this computer screen I can vaguely see the vase of flowers just beyond it on the dining room table. I also am aware of the living room just beyond that with another vase of flowers on the end table. But I can’t see all three in focus at the same time. I have to choose what to look at. It’s not a turning of the head from one to the other, just a shifting of focus. A shifting of perspective.
I am a tactile person. Quaint sayings offered to me when I am in crisis mode infuriate me. A friend and I used to joke about people telling us, in our moments of personal hell, to “set it at the foot of the cross.” I came very close a time or two to angrily retorting, “show me where the *bleep* foot of the cross is and how to *bleeping* set this invisible, crushing load down at it or get the *bleep* out of my way.” I said it in my head and mercifully never out loud. The poor soul who said it was just trying to help me. Bless their heart.
It was around that time though that I started trying to find physical ways of helping me handle very real and heavy things that just weren’t able to be tangibly handled. It is how I learned to shift my perspective when it was an internal shift that was needed, rather than putting myself in someone else’s position.
Let me show you.
Lift your hands up to your face. Put one hand about six inches from the end of your nose and the other hand twelve or so inches behind it. (I don’t measure for recipes either.) Stagger them slightly so that the far hand is half to one side of the hand closest to your face. Now, focus on the hand closest to your face. You can see that your other hand is behind it, but you can barely register anything distinct about it. The hand directly in front of you is all up in your personal face space. It is overpowering and commanding most of your field of vision. It’s obnoxious, really, being that close to your face. It demands your attention. It’s hard to see anything else.
Now, without moving anything but your gorgeous eyeballs, look at the hand farther back. The lines and details you could barely see when your focus was on the hand up close are now clearly distinguishable. Not only that, but you can see so much more than only that far hand! The in-your-face hand is still there. It is still super uncomfortably close to your face. BUT it is not dominating your vision. It doesn’t seem as overwhelming. It is still there and Lord knows it needs to be dealt with but you could walk across a room unharmed when your gaze is fixed on the far hand. You know you’d trip over something if you tried walking across that same room with your eyes glued to the hand that is all up in your face.
Hebrews 12:2 says to fix our eyes on Jesus. To focus our gaze on Him. Verse 1 talks about throwing aside anything that hinders us, including the sin that clings so closely, and running our race with perseverance. We are only able to do that by fixing our gaze on Him. Put the hands back up in front of your face. Jesus is the hand that is always near, but not in your face. We are instructed to do this so that, as it continues in verse 3, we do not grow weary or lose heart.
Now, even if you are not a disciple of Jesus the principle still holds true! Example: if you are overwhelmed by a task at work, your hand behind may be the incredible love you have in your family, the reason you’re working as hard as you are. Focus on the better thing and the more immediate one will lose a great deal of its imposing power.
There is a hundred year old hymn that is one of my favorites to sing to my kids at bedtime, and to myself when I’m stressed. It was written in 1922 by Helen Howarth Lemmel. She penned the lyrics after reading a pamphlet entitled Focused, written by a missionary named Lilias Trotter.
Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus is a beautiful hymn and holds a beautiful reminder wrapped in its melody.
Turn your eyes upon Jesus, Look full in His wonderful face, And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, In the light of His glory and grace.*
If you find yourself weary and troubled by the things that are so rudely in your face, take a breath, lift your hands, and remember you have the ability to choose where you focus your eyes.
*Lauren Daigle put her own touch on this song in recent years and I highly recommend you sit and listen to it while you close your eyes and breathe. Or while you hide in the bathroom and watch it on your phone while trying to pee in peace.
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