The Devil is in the Details

Last Sunday morning I received a text from a family friend. He sent me a screenshot of that day's Lenoir News-Topic. There was a picture in a section of the paper titled "Kid's View." The picture was drawn by our oldest son Dru. The text I received, which I read before I looked at the attached photo, said "The devil is in the details!" When I opened up the image my eyes immediately picked up on the joke our friend had made. In the bottom left hand corner of the image there is a devil standing on the porch of a house. My first thought was "What in the world is he drawing?" But as I broadened my view to take in the entire picture I figured out why he had drawn this image as part of a larger fall landscape. He had a bon fire, leaves raked into a pile, pumpkins, a turkey on the table, and a drawing of our Massey-Ferguson tractor for a hay ride. When I looked at the bigger picture I was able to see the context of a kid trick or treating rather than some abstract image drawn out of context. All it took to change my understanding of what was in front of me was to get some perspective on what I was looking at.

Sometimes the best thing we can do is get some perspective. When things are crashing down around us or our stress level seems to touch the sky, one thing that can help us make it through is to get some perspective on the situation. When we lose our perspective of our situation that is when those stresses seem to mount even higher or we feel more suffocated by the weight of the world that is on our shoulders. For the most part our problems in this life are temporary. Yes, I understand that some are life-long issues but for the most part problems come and go. We often hear people say, "This too shall pass." There is a great deal of truth in that phrase, even if it isn't found in the Bible. But one bible verse that is often quoted when dealing with things that will pass in time is 2 Corinthians 4:17-18. It says, "For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal" (NIV).

The problem we face with the troubles of this life is that they are right in our face and we feel like we can't help but fix our eyes on the problem. The solution to the problem is not what needs to be done to fix the trouble we find ourselves in, but instead to fix our eyes on what is unseen, as 2 Corinthians 4 says. When we fix our eyes on God, the unseen and eternal One, we gain a new perspective of our troubles. We see them for the temporary nuisance they are in the grand scheme of life. Some of those troubles God uses to forge us in a fire for His glory. Others we bring on ourselves due to our own sin. And still others are because of someone else's sinfulness. Regardless of the cause of our troubles we need to keep our eyes focused on the One who can deliver us from any trouble. He's the one preparing us for an eternity where troubles will be no more. So keep your eyes on Him and let Him give you some perspective on your current troubles.


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