Our Perspective

Our Poor Poor Perspectve

This past week I ministered to a young woman whose mother had died of cancer when she was about 12 or 13 years old. And Yes, she was still mad at God for taking her. I'll write about that issue later.

During the ministry session she spent some time with Jesus. And at one point I asked her to ask Jesus what he thought of her mother. To our surprise, Jesus replied, "She was a good sport." Unfortunately, she missed all the symbology, and most of that which followed. That was a disappointment but what Jesus said really struck me.

I don’t know about you, but when someone refers to another as a “good sport”, I take that as they have gone through a lot, and that they’ve taken it well. Perhaps not with a smile, but certainly not whining all the way through it. Being a good sport does not require you to enjoy what you experience. It simply requires that you endure it with all the good humor you can muster.

Our human perspective on life is always from the immediate; What I’m going through; How much it hurts; Why did it happen? What did I do to deserve this? What can I do about it? etc., rather than from the perspective of the eternal. When viewed from the immediate, it’s about, What can I withstand? How long will it last? and How much of it can I duck? When viewed from an eternal perspective, Paul’s words become very clear, he considered it “a light and temporary affliction.” (2 Corinthians 4:17)

When Jesus said she was a “good sport” it said a whole lot about the relationship she and He had. Since He did not afflict her with the disease, He took no joy in the toll it took on her emotionally and physically. But He apparently took pride in how she handled it, even in death. We know from the damage it did that her children didn’t handle it the same way their mom did. Grace to deal with a terminal illness is not always handed out to all participants, but is certainly there for the one who fought it daily. In this case, the husband and father didn’t do his job with the kids.

From Jeremiah 1:4-5, we see that the human spirit is eternal. Consequently, from an eternal perspective a short stint on the planet is not a very big deal, no matter how we make our exit.

2Corinthians 4:11-18 “Our lives are at constant risk for Jesus' sake, which makes Jesus' life all the more evident in us. 12 While we're going through the worst, you're getting in on the best!
13 We're not keeping this quiet, not on your life. Just like the psalmist who wrote, "I believed it, so I said it," we say what we believe. 14 And what we believe is that the One who raised up the Master Jesus will just as certainly raise us up with you, alive. 15 Every detail works to your advantage and to God's glory: more and more grace, more and more people, more and more praise! 16 So we're not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. 17 These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. 18 There's far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can't see now will last forever.” (MSG)