Theme: “Voice of Truth” By: Casting Crowns
Quote: “Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth." -Henry David Thoreau
I don’t think we realize how powerful perspective is. I was to have two whole weeks off. Half was vacation time and half was holiday from work. The events that follow underline two different unique perspectives, both laying out accurately the occurrences, but the focus is what differs.
Perspective 1:
The past two weeks have been hell;
First I felt lousy and wore out and spent all my ‘weekend’ trying to prepare for Christmas. This was further tainted by the declining health of our family dog at his recent vet visit. We ended up canceling all the fun we had planned, my mom and dad meeting my boyfriends mom and dad. Exchanging Christmas gifts and then going out to look at Christmas lights.
Right after Christmas dinner our dog Gabriel passed away, I struggled the next few days with being angry, feeling sick, sad and depressed.
My friend Michelle, my boyfriend Josh and my dad all tried to cheer me up on different days, but I was left with a hollow emptiness and sorrow.
When the time for the weekend came I had to cancel going to Holiday in the Park at Six Flags and using the free tickets I got to the special drive-through lights because of how sick I felt.
On New Year’s Eve my mom, boyfriend and I all got food poisoning from the 1 special drink we all had, apparently the ice-cream had gone bad.
We were all sick the next several hours, my mom and I so much it lingered for over a day. I had no energy or emotional ability to really connect to anything or anyone.
The food poisoning lingered a good while, and then I finally had a day I felt good. With all the things on my agenda I wanted to accomplish, I decided to work to at least get rid of one of those things which was going through two bins of paper to get rid of trash shred the stuff that was confidential and file scan or copy into my computer the important documents. I worked for eight hours, I finally finished because my mom and dad chipped in.
By this point I was in so much pain I could hardly sit upright and then when I went to bed and woke up the next morning I was in even worse pain. This was the day that I found out it was the female time of the month.
So just as I started this holiday, I end it with feeling crappy…
Perspective 2:
The past two weeks have been a challenging time, full of growth as well as a real trial with family and relationships.
Before Christmas break, I and my family discovered our dog Gabriel was suffering from about five terminal illnesses. They assured us he wasn’t suffering, just not feeling very good. Many options were laid before us, but none that provided hope. So we did the only thing we knew to do, lavish love and attention on him and do everything in our power to make him happy and feel loved. We played with him, took pictures, spoke reassuringly... just did everything we could think to do.
God told my dad that he would make it through Christmas and life proceeded somewhat as normal, I wrapped presents and worked on doing any last-minute preparations for Christmas. On Christmas Day we enjoyed opening presents together, talking, having fun. We watched a movie, and then my boyfriend came over. We opened his presents and the presents he had for us and once we had finished that. My dad announced that our dog had passed away. Gabriel had gone to my room, a place that was comforting to him apparently. And though we cried and were all very sad and emotional. It made me feel somewhat happy to know that I was a person of comfort to him, and that he didn’t have to be put to sleep. Instead he was allowed to pass away in his own home, where he knew he was loved and safe.
God blessed me during this time, since my work had provided the entire week off, and this allowed me to have time t0 grieve. Going through all the stages of emotions, anger disbelief, sorrow…
Then I was blessed by a dear friends who wanted to help show me how loved I was and that I wasn’t alone. My best friend took me out to eat, her treat. She spent time with me, we played games and she did her best to help me know that I was loved and I wasn’t alone. Though I struggled, feeling so many emotions. My gratitude towards her knows no bounds.
The very next day, my boyfriend took me out and did the same. Letting me know I wasn’t alone and that I was loved that there would be light and joy again.
Then it was my dad‘s turn. He took me to the mall and we spent a little money that I shouldn’t have, but we had fun and it was great being with him like that. We enjoyed each other‘s company, came home, ate a meal, and watched TV together.
Though I was still struggling through the emotions and feeling somewhat numb, it was reassuring to have so many people show love and affection towards me.
After Thoughts:
When I started writing this, I needed to get out my anger and my feelings (Perspective 1). Basically to say “This is so unfair!” However after writing that I realized it was only looking at everything that was wrong, but not what was right. Now one thing you can notice is in Perspective Two, I didn’t make it all unicorns and rainbows. No I was hurting, admitted it, but also saw hope. Saw light, and felt love. The two perspectives are both right, both contain ‘Facts’, but only one contains ‘Truth’. Facts can mislead, Facts can be misinterpreted, even if you have ‘all the facts’, you can still come to a wrong conclusion.
Truth however, looks beyond facts, beyond just a single instance. It looks at the world as a whole, at people around you. Facts focus on a person’s own personal filter. The lens they view reality through. (Which can be skewed by, family, pain and geography). Truth is bigger, wider, deeper and more profound. That is why Jesus said, ‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.’ It’s more than just a limited filter, but the perspective of One that is Omniscience and Omnipresent. Knows all, sees all, is all.
How often do we forget to focus on what ‘Type’ of perspective we use? Fact (#1) or Truth (#2)? We need to be careful we don’t just count facts and come to our own conclusions. We need outside sources, bigger, broader, and able to see further down the road than we can, before we can truly say what is ‘True’. We can’t do it alone, so I know this... I’m ready to quit trying. What about you?