Perspective

per·spec·tive  [per-spek-tiv]  noun

• the state of one's ideas, the facts known to one, etc., in having a meaningful interrelationship: You have to live here a few years to see local conditions in perspective.

Perspective has everything to do with where you are and what you believe to be true at that moment. Someone can look at the same thing you are but have a different experience from it based on their perspective and how it differs from yours.

I have really been trying to work on this in my life. Being aware of other's perspectives and also attempting to maintain God's perspective on my life instead of my own. At times it comes easy and at others it is contrary to everything I feel inside.

Recently I had my very own object lesson of what God must see in me sometimes. Here is an example of an slightly off-base perspective in a movie:

My oldest daughter and I were watching a movie titled The Other End of the Line (trailer) and towards the end of this cute romantic comedy was a scene that caused both my daughter and I to do a double take. Let me set the stage for you:

• East Indian girl falls in love with American boy
• the girl gets caught in a lie about who she really was
• the guy leaves her
• she loses the respect of her family
• her family is shamed in their Indian culture

The scene I am referring to is when the young woman decides to go on with her life, without the guy she fell in love with. There's a montage of her cleaning out her desk at work, taking a new job and with a sad face picking up the pieces and moving onward.  As this scene is unfolding the song in the background is Breathe.

This is the air I breathe
This is the air I breathe
Your holy presence
Living in me

This is my daily bread
This is my daily bread
Your very word
Spoken to me

And I ... I'm desperate for you
And I ... I'm lost without you

Here's my issue - the scene visually depicts a woman devastated by her circumstances, trying to find solid ground to keep moving forward; yet the song is about love and devotion and need. Or so I thought.

Then the light switch came on for me. The folks responsible for placing this song in the movie likely had the wrong perspective and sometimes so do I. See in that particular scene you hear the actress giving a voice-over as she talks to a new group of recruits at her job. (They are East Indian people at a call center trying to act and sound like Americans on the phone.) She warns them not to get confused about who they truly are versus who they pretend to be at their job.

Isn't that exactly what that song represents?  It isn't just about the depth of our love for Jesus, but it is about letting nothing else become more important that our "being" with God. If He is the air we breathe - the sustenance of our lives - then he knows us intimately and we are nothing without Him. (Psalm 139).

Within God's perspective we find our truest selves. We see our gifts and talents, our passions and desires and our relationship qualities through His perspective. Then, if we believe that and lean into that we can't become lost, confused, or fall into the trap of pretending to be someone we aren't. We can't run out of air.

I won't go out on a limb and claim that the folks who chose the soundtrack knew that and were aiming for that perspective. However it reminded me that nothing in my life falls outside the realm of my Lord and Savior. He truly is the air I breathe - even if I forget about Him for awhile or get sidetracked or lose sight of who He made me to be. He is still there. And often times in my own life I tend to fall into the same pit that movie character was in (everything gone wrong) before I remember that He is with me.

Then, I take a deep breathe of Him and I gain the right perspective again. On everything.

Maybe this would be a better soundtrack for those scenes in your life when you find yourself at the bottom of a barrel, so to speak.

You said you'd never leave or forsake me

When you said, this life is gonna shake me

And you said this world is gonna bring trouble on my soul

This I know

When everything falls apart your arms hold me together

When everything falls apart you're the only hope for this heart

When everything falls apart and my strength is gone

I find you mighty and strong, you keep holding on

You keep holding on

When I see the darkness all around me

When I see that tragedy has found me

I still believe your faithful arms will never let me go

And still I know

When everything falls apart your arms hold me together

When everything falls apart you're the only hope for this heart

When everything falls apart and my strength is gone

I find you mighty and strong, you keep holding on

You keep holding on

Sorrow will last for the night

But hope is rising with the sun, its rising with the sun

There will be storms in this life

But I know You will overcome, you have overcome

When everything falls apart your arms hold me together

When everything falls apart you're the only hope for this heart

When everything falls apart and my strength is gone

I find you mighty and strong, you keep holding on

You keep holding on

                                        Fee - Everything Falls Apart

Today my prayer is this: Lord may you be the air I breathe everyday, every hour and every moment - no matter what. And help me to remember that when everything falls apart You are still there.

Now that is the right perspective.