When I was in the sixth grade, a friend was sitting beside me as a group of us chatted following class. She looked at me rather strangely and announced, “The side of your head looks like a fish!”

As silly and impromptu as that was, it took me years to dismiss. Was my head especially odd looking? Did others see it the way my friend did? My failure to fully understand her momentary but honest perspective caused me significant youthful distress.

Some of you have heard Frank Lloyd Wright’s recollection of a walk on a snowy day with an uncle when Frank was 9. After a while, the uncle contrasted Frank’s meandering footprints with his own, direct path to their destination. “There is an important lesson in that,” the uncle said. Wright claimed that that moment had a significant impact on his philosophy of life. “I determined right then not to miss most things in life, as my uncle had!”

Who in Wright’s story had the correct perspective? Or is it more complicated than that?

Perspective clearly affects how we live our lives. According to Gallup polls, the war in Iraq has been the most significant issue in America for three years running, with 36% choosing that issue, and with no other issue garnering more than 8% (galluppoll. com). The war is undoubtedly important. Is it, in the big picture, more important than, for example, ethical/moral decline, which was chosen by just 5% of the people? Perhaps resolving the problem of ethical and moral decline would help us answer problems of war and poverty, for example. Yet ethical/moral decline peaked on the list of important issues 34 years ago. From my own perspective, the decline is no less severe now than it was in 1972. But obviously the perspective of others is very, very different.

What is your perspective? What is the number one problem in the world, in your nation, in your neighborhood? How informed is your perspective? Does your stated perspective match the actual priorities of your time and focus?

What is your church’s perspective? How is it living out that perspective? Are you having an influence on those who disagree with you, or only those who already agree?

“What can we possibly do?” was the plea of Elisha’s servant after he announced that they were surrounded by a large enemy army (2 Kings 6). It was only after Elisha prayed that the servant’s eyes were able to see the full reality that it was the enemy army that was effectively surrounded “with horses and chariots of fire.” It’s possible, then, for different perspectives to coexist, even among true people of God. May ours be fully informed, rightly inspired, and faithfully applied.