Perspective
I’ve been using that word a lot lately. (thanks mom)
Just now I’m thinking of how to get from a microscopic to more of a satellite perspective.
It all boils down to the two rules, Love God, and Love your neighbor.
There’s a reason that ‘Love God’ is first.
It is out of this love that all other love is born, and flows.
[that is HUGE, read it again]
Out of God’s love for us, and our love for Him comes every other love. Relationship. This is first and foremost.
He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. John 4:8 KJV
But now..... it’s been a long time since we (collectively) were truly in that perfect relationship with Him.
And He knew that we would, over time, lose that perspective, lose our understanding of the meaning of the word: love, and how to do it.
So He gives us all the rest of it, not rules or laws or commandments as we think of them, but as instructions, the means for us to learn how to and what love really is.
The Bible, His-story, Word of God: It’s a love story.
And I believe that all of the ‘laws’ are there simply to show us how to love.
You see, it all comes down to perspective.
Do we look at the commandments given simply as a framework on how to live?
Do we look at the laws as a set of regulations that will get us in trouble if not obeyed?
Do we look at rules as things to keep us from getting what we really want?
Yes, yes, and yes.
That’s the short answer.
But what if...?
Let’s consider this, what if these were all given in the context of relationship. (and I believe that is exactly how and why they were given)
Because the first ‘sin’ was not simply disobedience of the command, it was a severing of the relationship that Adam had with God.
His ‘sin’ was not the action of taking a bite of forbidden fruit, it was the changed attitude of his heart in turning away from trusting and knowing that God’s love for him was perfect – turning to questioning, mistrust, and suspicion that somehow he’d been cheated and something good was being withheld from him.
Oh how we all have focused on the ONE thing in all the bounty beauty and lavish splendor of the earth that was given to Adam: the fruit of a tree that was not to be eaten.
Only one thing measured against the entire rest of the created world.
Hmmmmmm, perspective.
So he took the bite – yes – but it was his heart that ‘sinned’ severing the precious relationship with God and with everything else that was given to him.
The relationship, the connection was the issue. Not the fruit.
And God’s anger and hurt was because of the resulting repercussion of the changed heart attitude to mistrust, suspicion, and questioning of His motives in their relationship.
I can just imagine Him thinking, ‘I thought you knew Me better than that!?!’.
The result of his heart’s questioning God’s love, was to misalign the very fabric of creation, the relationship that was established between God, mankind, and the universe.
All that God had done for him, and given him were thereafter disconnected and broken.
And that connection could not be re-established until Christ came to rebuild it.
Satan’s own sin. The change in Adam’s heart, like Satan’s, resulted in the desire to be his own god, self reliant, independent and in charge.
[Even now Satan is still tempting every one of us in the very same way, and, like Adam, we’re swallowing it hook line and sinker.]
We live with a distorted context of the original design, the purpose of creation, because we’ve been disconnected from the source.
Our focus and our heart’s desires have become like Satan – trying to be our own gods, rather than trusting His love for us, because we no longer know Him.
Now all we see and measure ourselves against are actions and appearances.
But deep inside we know that we cannot live perfect lives according to God’s ‘list of rules’.
And so we’re miserable.
Some of us rebel against the rules so we toss them out (knowing we can’t live up to them anyway, and live reckless angry lives). Rebel
Others of us pose, acting like we’ve accomplished that life of perfection (knowing that it is a lie, but wanting to be seen as good, living anxious empty lives of fear). Pharisee
And others simply ignore the fact that there are any rules at all (ostrich like, living a life of hiding and denial). Escapist
And still others work furiously to try and dispute or disprove or dismantle the rules (seeking scientific proof that it’s all a lie, living self centered prideful lives). Pragmatist
All of which are still simply ‘rule’ based perspectives.
Relationship based perspectives are difficult however.
Love is not a word we understand any longer.
And relationship – connection – is always built on love. (God being Love, and all)
To use the word ‘love’ is not enough explanation now that the word has been distorted, diluted, and polluted.
But if we go back and read His-story with an eye on all of the relationships, we’ll get the picture.
We’re a long way from Eden, but God is so right here, available, willing, and waiting for us to reconnect with Him.
As I read the Word [the History of God and mankind] I see over and over how God has been telling us that love, relationship, and connection are the reason for His creation.
It is His story of love for His children and it gives us the ‘satellite’ and the ‘microscopic’ views of the amount of love He has for us, the great extent that He is willing to go to in order to reconnect with us.
When I think about all of the Scripture’s instructions, the guidelines, laws, rules, and commandments, I see a God that is trying to teach us how to love.
How to love Him, each other, and ourselves.
But that’s not what Satan wants. He wants us to see God as withholding, untrustworthy, angry, aloof, austere, and unreachable.
So rather than seeing connection as the reason for His communications with us, we’ve been blinded with a lie, and see only rules, sin and consequences.
But SIN is THE consequence. Sin is what happens when we are not in love with Him.
Sin is the rebellion of our hearts that is the wedge between us and God’s love.
We’ve turned our focus to sin rather than to the relationship that He wants.
Therefore we must change our focus.
We must see from a different perspective.
We must change from microscope to satellite.
And we need to ask ourselves some questions.
What was the purpose of it all?
And how do we get back to what we were meant to be?
What is it that He wants from us?
When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father. John 15:8, NLT
What fruit is it that He wants us to produce?
We can look at creation for that answer: for apple trees, it’s apples, for potato plants, it’s potatoes, for mankind, it’s relationship – connection – love.
He wants us to be what He created us to be....
And that is to be in relationship with Him, each other, and the earth – all of creation. (satellite)
Seek God – to know Him as He is, love Him and constantly remain connected.
Relationship is apparent in worship but we’ve kind of forgotten about real worship and its application.
It’s the action of loving. It’s the expression of our heart’s truest desires.
To worship is simply to seek, love, and connect with, from the heart.
What we worship, our focus, is going to demonstrate what we love.
I wonder if we could get ourselves tweaked back into a ‘relationship’ perspective?
I wonder if we stepped back, took a satellite view of things?
How would we live?
Perhaps we would seek a relationship with our Creator.
If we knew that love was connection with God; having a relationship with a generous kind powerful caring Creator that simply wants us to know Him.
And seek relationship, honest relationship, with each other instead of focusing on actions and appearances.
How indeed......
It’s all a matter of perspective.
No comments:
Post a Comment