note to readers: i started this in the wee hours of the morning, but saved it for later to post. and looking back at it, it may just be random rantings.
websters defines perspective as this: the relationship or proportion of the parts as a whole, regarded from a particular standpoint or point in time; a proper evaluation with proportional importance given to the component parts.
it is 4:45am. i should be asleep. instead i am ending a sleepless night with this post. why? perspective. tonight i spent 2+ hours in the emergency room getting stitches in my son’s hand. he cut the web at the base of his thumb with an exacto knife while working on a school project. as cuts go, the doctor said it could be worse. there is no permanent damage at this point. i should add that justice (my son) is 11 and in the 5th grade. this is his 3rd project for the school year. the first one we bombed, due to lack of knowledge of what the teacher expected and that she grades on a curve. we also let him do the work himself, it was after all his project. the second one, we aced. much wiser were we. and the grade was just as much mine and my husbands as it was justice’s. this one, well we had to out do the last one right? perspective.
in the teacher’s mind, how important the child’s grade is- to the child and the parent determines what you will do to get an excellent score. in not a joking manner i say, one can almost lose a thumb. perspective.
my husband couldn’t drive us to the er. my daughter to the wheel. madelynne (my daughter) is 16. she took care of her dad in the waiting room, while i went into triage with justice. when we got home my husband said he was sorry he left me on my own to handle it and that he was grateful i could. he said he needed to figure out some way to be able to deal with that kind of thing. perspective.
in his mind he was supposed to be the protector of the household, yet he was weak. how can that be? he was raised on a farm, butchered animals often. he’s a man. this shouldn’t have bothered him. perspective.
all justice could say was that he was sorry for making a mess and getting blood all over the project- ruining it. perspective.
oh let me say we’re turning that sucker in JUST AS IT IS. there’s more excellence in the blood stains of my son than there are in the hours spent on the stupid project. the teacher can keep her A. and justice gets to keep the use of his thumb. that’s a proper evaluation of the importance given to the component parts.
you see we distort the concept of excellence with what we think God’s perspective is. if we don’t make a grand statement we’ve failed. if we’re not overly creative with the Sunday morning service or super spiritual in our peer groups or face down every time in our devotion time… we haven’t done enough. it’s not our best. God’s not impressed. that’s perspective.
God knows your heart. if you are truly giving it all, you will bless him. and he you. if you don’t have any live footage, no dynamic videos, or props, but you have a guitar and a singer who is singing their guts out, to glorify him… if all you can afford is a store front building and not a “real church”, but yet lives are being changed… if all you got is a piece of poster board with only half a project and blood splatters on it, don’t apologize for it. make something out of it.
