I always enjoyed listening to my grandfather tell stories. He would often reminisce about ranching and cowboying. The topic of gathering old crop lambs was a common conversation. He and his father would turn out several thousand head of sheep in big country. These sheep would then be gathered at a later date to be sheared and then again to be sold. The job of gathering thousands of sheep in a 5,000-acre pasture was no easy task. They often used many men on horseback to prowl through the cedar and mesquite thickets searching for the animals. If you’ve lived in San Saba county for any length of time, you’ll know how bad the brush can be. There are some places so thick the wind hardly blows through it. Finding sheep in the brush was extremely difficult.
Eventually they started hiring a helicopter pilot to aid in the search. He would fly way above the pasture, locate the sheep, bunch them together, and even drive them towards a fence or gate. The cowboys could follow the helicopter and pick up the bunches and take them on to the pens. The reason this worked so well is because the pilot had a different perspective. He saw the pasture as it really was. There were no trees blocking his view. The terrain seemed impassable for the men on the ground. But for the man in the air, it was no big deal.
Having the right perspective is essential in the Christian life. Struggles, trials, and hardships appear and seem to block our view. We only see the present problems. We see no way through our situations. If anyone ever had the right to be distressed about their conditions, it was the Apostle Paul. He was beaten numerous times, stoned and left for dead, shipwrecked, snake bitten, and imprisoned several times. Church history tells us he was most likely martyred. But instead of despair, Paul chooses to see his life from God’s perspective. In Philippians 1:12, he says this: “ I want you to know, brothers,that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel.”
This is seeing life from 30,000 feet. This is seeing God at work, even when obstacles are right in front of us. Paul could look at his hardships and see that the Lord was working through them. In fact, unique opportunities came out of the hardships. For the Christian, life is more than our present circumstances. We are privileged to be a part of the biggest story ever told: the story of salvation. And we have God’s promise that it will work out in the end. Romans 8:28 tell us: “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”
Perhaps life has put some large obstacles in your way. You can’t see a way around them. Often the answer is not for the obstacles to be removed, but for you to see life from a different perspective. It’s usually best to have a bird’s eye view.