Turing A Mole Hill Into A Mountain
Numbers 13:30-33 (New Living Translation)
30 But Caleb tried to quiet the people as they stood before Moses. “Let’s go at once to take the land,” he said. “We can certainly conquer it!”
31 But the other men who had explored the land with him disagreed. “We can’t go up against them! They are stronger than we are!” 32 So they spread this bad report about the land among the Israelites: “The land we traveled through and explored will devour anyone who goes to live there. All the people we saw were huge. 33 We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak. Next to them we felt like grasshoppers, and that’s what they thought, too!”
Throughout my life I have met many individuals that have made lifetime decisions based upon momentary issues or events. When I say momentary I do not necessarily mean events that happened in one moment in time only, but things that may have consumed a period of time that was not consistent, but for some us if we are honest it really was something that happened in a moment. I myself have been guilty of allowing a time, a space, an event, and a person to consume me to the point where they became an element that could make or break me (no one should have that kind of power but God). How could this be, how could I have allowed this to become such an issue? It is based upon my perspective in the moment or moments after an event has taken place. I had taken something or someone that should have been a mole hill, a lesson a learning experience and made it or them into a Mountain, a life changing event. I took my eyes off of the one who was truly important to allow and afford these people and events to be magnified in my life to a point where they consumed me and even blocked out my “Son.”
Recently, as some of you know I did encounter some things that were life changing, and have been life altering, even if temporary. One day after this major event in my life, I lay across my bed and prayed. I began to see my life and how many times I had allowed things and people to take me some place that they should never have been able to take me. I began to see how I had made giants out of things that were really grasshoppers. I had accepted defeat when God had promised me victory. You see when your life is altered and you do not have certain things or certain abilities that you once took for granted you begin to see what is really important. You begin to thank God for being able to eat, not complaining about what you have to eat. You thank God you can see the sun shine and the rain instead of complaining about the heat and the inconvenience that certain types of weather can bring. You worship God for all that He moved out of your life instead of complaining about who did not stay. You begin to see all the love you have instead of seeing all those who do not know you, could never accept you or appreciate who God made you to be. You begin to realize that all the little aches and pains were nothing because you still had the ability to feel.
Ironically enough we stand back on so many occasions and the first thing we see is all the wrong done to us, instead of all the right, which is. Why do we do that? Why do we see things differently than what God has already ordained them to be? In many cases it has to do with the fact that we have refocused ourselves on events, and people instead of God. We have chosen to put more emphasis and value on, jobs, houses, money, and people, instead of our relationship and obedience to God. If we would look away from everything that we deem as large, overwhelming, or significant, and refocus for a moment, pray and ask God to allow us to see as He sees, when we looked again at all of those life events, possessions and people and although we may have an appreciation for them we would be able to put them in perspective, and see them as things that are small in the grand scheme of God’s plan and in most cases. We would be able to see that the people that have been moved out of our lives were for our making not our breaking. Those things that we do not possess may not be there until we appreciate what we already possess, or for some of us, what may have taken us away from the very presence of God. For moments that we perceived as wasted on people or things that we label as hurts received, instead should be seen as lessons learned, obstacles overcome and strength gained.
Someone a while ago told me that all things were about perspective, well He was right, but the thing that is often missed in that is it is not our perspective that is the stick by which we should measure, but it should be God’s will and our obedience, that is our guide and measuring stick. It is in all things we should be giving thanks, what are we thinking on, it should be the brighter side, the lighter side the Godly side of life. The one that says God has made me an overcomer. The one that states the blessings of Abraham are mine; the ones that outline us as the head and not the tail above and not beneath, the lender not the borrower. We should appreciate the smiles of our children, the touch that we can give to empower someone else, it should be so much less about us and more about extending a hand to help, understand and bless another, you see, you have to know there is ALWAYS, someone worse off than us! Whether it is a broken promise, a word not spoken, a thank you not received, look at it and know that it is only a small thing, when you have so very much to be thankful for inspite of who did or did not do, say, or come through for you, as long as God does, not much else really matters. Thank God for where you are, where He has brought you from and where it is that He is taking you, don’t dwell on the things you can not change, the people you can not change, make love or respect you, or the things and even relationships that did not work out, realize God is in control and it is all working out for your God. Take off the magnifier and look at life again I am sure you will see all those issues, circumstances, and hurts are not as large as you once thought that they were…
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