Is there anything we feel in life that isn't perspective?
I was moved a few weeks ago by the story of Jacob in the book of Genesis. It was the story of Jacob fleeing from Esau, and God appearing to him in a dream in a place later named Bethel (House of God). Max led the study, I appreciated him bringing us into the mindset of Jacob. Jacob was leaving his home, his family and his understanding of purpose. He was leaving a family that had been blessed by God and that God had promised to bless and be a blessing through. He didn’t know where he was going or what had drawn him there and was uncertain how this fit into his future.
I identified with Jacob: a panic, a what am I doing here, a sense of lack of purpose, a struggle to understand my vision and how to communicate that.
God appeared in a dream. Jacob saw a ladder, with “messengers” going up and down, with the Lord atop. The Lord spoke to him, ““I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”
Jacob woke up, made a monument, glorified God, realized the holiness inherent to this place. "Surely the Lord was in this place and I was not aware of it." he says.
What struck me was that reality had not changed overnight. Jacob woke up with the exact struggles in reality that were torturing him as he fell asleep. God was just as faithful when Jacob fell asleep, he still had plans for Jacob. All that changed was his perception. He gained a knowledge that God was for him. Would not leave him or forsake him.
Since then I feel like my perspective might have changed a bit. When I respond to someone's question of "how are you" with, "good" or "bad", what am I really saying? I mean if I believe in God's promises, that he works through suffering, that I am valuable not because of what I do but who I am and who God is, and that in the end "all things work for the good of those who love Him", how can any day be bad?
Now grief may be a different beast. But in reality, what I am saying with my response to "how are you" is: I was able to enter into the perspective of God today or I was not.
Was I able to understand the presence of God?
Because whether I am aware or not, God is surely present in this place.
Creator increase my awareness, every day.
