The Bird's View

Have you ever noticed the limitation of perspective? This is what I mean: No matter how great your imagination or how out of the box you may think, your whole life is spent seeing from only one perspective. From the moment you wake to the moment you fall asleep, you can only see with your two eyes and perceive with your own five senses.

We can't truly say that "I know how you feel" and we can't say anything when someone writhes, "You just can't understand what I'm going through!" Even our emotions are limited and prescribed by our past experiences. This is one of life's greatest limitations and it produces most of life's greatest conflicts. Because we see and feel things so differently, we build values around different things. In marriages, families, and friendships, people are divided because they grasp onto their needs too tightly. It's true, a need is a need. I need food. I need to be heard. I need acceptance. I need to feel significant. These are all rational and reasonable needs that are often too evasive for the human soul. Alone they create no conflict but when two people grasp for the same thing, be it attention, acceptance, food, or significance, conflict arises.

Love. This is the prescription for all of life's problems: Love. When we Love, we lay down our own needs for the sake of others. Love doesn't call us to ignore our needs, it calls us to elevate the needs of others. In Love, we can postpone our own fulfillment as we seek to fulfill another. Often times Love goes unnoticed, but in a relationship this sacrificial Love elevates the needy and empowers the needy to fulfill the needs of others. Love. It is our call; a new perspective on Life. This is a bird's-eye view of Christian living.