Viewpoint

I found the following poem by Edward Rowland Sill (1841-1887) several years ago.  It speaks to me about how I should view others.

The royal feast was done; the King

Sought some new sport to banish care,

And to his jester cried: "Sir Fool,

Kneel now, and make for us a prayer!"

The jester doffed his cap and bells,

And stood the mocking court before;

They could not see the bitter smile

Behind the painted grin he wore.

He bowed his head, and bent his knee

Upon the Monarch's silken stool;

His pleading voice arose: "O Lord,

Be merciful to me, a fool!

"No pity, Lord, could change the heart

From red with wrong to white as wool;

The rod must heal the sin: but Lord,

Be merciful to me, a fool!

“'T is not by guilt the onward sweep

Of truth and right, O Lord, we stay;

'T is by our follies that so long

We hold the earth from heaven away.

"These clumsy feet, still in the mire,

Go crushing blossoms without end;

These hard, well-meaning hands we thrust

Among the heart-strings of a friend.

"The ill-timed truth we might have kept--

Who knows how sharp it pierced and stung?

The word we had not sense to say--

Who knows how grandly it had rung!

"Our faults no tenderness should ask.

The chastening stripes must cleanse them all;

But for our blunders -- oh, in shame

Before the eyes of heaven we fall.

"Earth bears no balsam for mistakes;

Men crown the knave, and scourge the tool

That did his will; but Thou, O Lord,

Be merciful to me, a fool!"

The room was hushed; in silence rose

The King, and sought his gardens cool,

And walked apart, and murmured low,

"Be merciful to me, a fool.”

For a long, long time I thought my viewpoint was the only correct one (don’t we all at some point or another).  Having people who reported to me directly at work proved that I was very, very wrong.  Instead of asking them to join with me in creating their success, what I asked instead was that they make me important.  Instead of searching for reasons behind their behavior, I dictated to them how they should behave and berated them when they didn’t do exactly as I expected.  Instead of seeing a person, all I saw was a body to be used.  Sadly, I abused the greatest assets I had at my disposal; I believe I sometimes treated my keyboard better.

Cancer taught me a lot about how we view each other.  Most people weren’t even aware I was dealing with cancer.  Some that were aware didn’t want to touch me for fear I’d pass it on to them.  Some thought I was lying because I sure didn’t act like I had cancer; the way they saw it, I was begging for attention and nothing was really wrong with me.  How many times have I thought the same thing about others? 

Cancer doesn’t care who you are.  It comes knocking whether you’re young or old, tall or short, in spite of your race, in spite of your faith, in spite of your wealth.  Then again, God doesn’t care who you are either.  God meets you where you are.  He loves us in spite of ourselves, despite the things we’ve done.  The difference is that cancer strikes you down and offers you death, while God lifts you up and offers you life.

There is such a thing as a cancerous viewpoint.  It looks for trouble and finds it.  It searches for evil and promotes it.  Unless something is done, it grows and grows until it overtakes your life and breaks you down, turning you into something that’s nearly unrecognizable.  Your heart becomes a black hole where love finds very little purchase.

I discovered that I had a tendency to see only my small part of the situation, how it affected me, my team, my life, my job, my family.  Life is always bigger than me, though.  Sometimes it’s impossible to understand the little things without first understanding the bigger things.  At work they call it seeing the big picture.  What I was doing was taking the mural off the wall and cutting it into pieces, then trying to fit them together in all the wrong ways.

I had this idea that my piece of the puzzle was the most important one.  It wasn’t, but I was a bit blind to anything but my own sight.  I needed all those other pieces to be whole. Somehow I just couldn’t see that.  My focus was so limited that I had tunnel vision.  As my granny used to say, I couldn’t see the forest for the trees. Our world is like that these days - it's all about me and mine and what I want.  And that's exactly what the enemy wants - for us to be so into ourselves that we can't see anything else, even if it's right in front of us.

When I looked at others I had a limited view.  I saw what I wanted to see, and I saw what they wished to present.  I made judgments about what I saw, right or wrong.  For example, if I saw a young person wearing black with black makeup, I immediately determined that he/she was in league with the devil, a bad person, a bad influence.  I didn’t know that to be true since I didn’t bother to get to know him/her.  Instead I jumped to a grand conclusion and ended up making a fool of myself.

God, on the other hand, has a limitless view.  He sees everyone for whom and what they truly are.  And he accepts them right there.  Not me.  I expected proof.  I wanted you to show me why I should respect you, why I should believe you.  And if you weren’t just like me, it was highly doubtful I’d accept you.  It’s called prejudice and pre-judgment.  I bought into it and practiced it.  I let certain behaviors determine my thoughts and actions.  I responded to anger and hurt in kind – tit for tat.  Until God said, “My child, it was you who nailed me to that cross.” 

That quiet voice brought me up short.  I wasn’t there when Christ died.  I wasn’t part of the crowd that gathered to watch him die.  But the guilt is still mine.  I did that to him.  He took my punishment.  He gave himself up willingly for me.  He was beaten, broken, and used up just for me – and for every other person on earth, including those I looked down upon.  My narrow viewpoint made me miss the point – God wants to save everyone even though he knows that not everyone will come.

Being God, he met me right where I was and changed my viewpoint.  Now, before I pass judgment on someone’s behavior, I try to think about what caused it.  If I have to deal with anger, I let the anger expend itself before I try to work with that person.  I watch for those who are having a bad day and try to give them positive feedback.  Instead of telling them all the things that are wrong with them, I try to address the good in them first.  Instead of judgment I try to give understanding and compassion.  I don’t always make it.  I still find myself turning into a fool.  I still find myself begging forgiveness.

In the business world it’s common to see people treated as just another part of the assembly line.  What hurts is to see that happening at church.  Some churches are more about how much money they can bring in than how many people they can bring to meet God.  It goes further than that, though.  Some churches bring in a lot of people, and people come to the Lord, but the church lets them flounder there.  We seem to think if we buy the right program the new in Christ will have everything they need to become strong in Christ.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.

The truth is that none of us ever arrive at perfection.  I still need to be chastened and taught.  Recently I was in a hurry to get a handle on where God was taking me, so I e-mailed my friend (and preacher’s wife) for help.  There goes that very small window on the world again!  It seemed to take forever for her to send a response and when she did she reminded me my viewpoint was askew.  She told me to stop being in such a hurry and wait on God to reveal his purpose and plan.  Thank God for wonderful sister chicks in the Lord who love you enough to tell you the truth!