Life Through My Own Front Window

Every Friday morning I run intervals in our neighborhood. We have a one-mile loop and I go around it twice, alternating between walking and running each leg. It occurred to me recently that if two people on different legs of the loop should happen to be watching me regularly, they could each come to a different conclusion. One might state that every Friday I walk around the loop first and then run around it a second time. The other might argue emphatically that I run first and then walk the second time around. An argument might ensue between the two, each determined to win, but each relying only upon his own limited view of the situation. Of course, neither of the two is correct in their assessment of the truth. If however, someone should observe my course from a position above the ground, suspended somehow from the sky where they could view the situation in its entirety, they would unmistakably know the truth.

So it is with life. Each one sees life pass by in the unfolding events of each day. Each one sees through the window of his own immediate surroundings. Each one determines what he perceives to be the truth and is intent on convincing the other that his position is correct. We forget that another view may be as equally valid as our own. We also forget that, should the truth be told, perhaps we will both be found sadly mistaken in our incomplete view of reality. Thus begins the quest for Truth. We must find the One who sees all of life from “above the ground.” The One whose perspective transcends our immediate situation. The One of whom we are told, “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him.” (Colossians 1:16) The One who IS Jesus Christ.

In the opening chapter of his book, A Christian Manifesto, Francis Schaeffer declares,

“The basic problem of the Christians in this country in the last eighty years or so, in regard to society and in regard to government, is that they have seen things in bits and pieces instead of totals.”

Christians have unconsciously adopted a subtle version of humanism. A humanism that insists that my way of Christianity is right because I say it is right. We forget that the view through our own “front window” is no more valid than the view of any other. Only the wisdom of God, as revealed in His Word, His eternal, unchanging Word is able to reveal the Truth about reality. Therefore, it is only as we saturate our minds and hearts with His Word that we too will unmistakably know the Truth.