A New Perspective

I recently found myself comfortably holed up in my home office, heater on high, sitting on my couch, watching a video of a group of adventurous friends preparing to face a mountain.  From the confines of my cozy office, I imagined joining friends, prepping, and heading out on some wild adventure of our own. Scrunched over, I lace up my hiking boots, feeling the snowflakes brush my cheeks and the chill in the air warming my heart. I gaze ahead at the trail before me, anticipating the steep climb's joys, challenges, and unknowns. But I know it's all very different when you are at the base of that mountain. From a distance, all of the preparations and heartaches feel distant because I am comfortably insulated from the realities of the climb by the screen. Still, at the base camp, the cold cuts to the bone, the red frozen fingers ache and throb, the snow and ice sting the face, and the weight of the packs strains the necks and the backs.

Life is like that; when we sit back in comfortable times, it seems easy to plan how we will respond to particular situations in life or to criticize others for how they respond, but in the moment, we will often react in ways we regret because the environment or stress gets to us. Sometimes, we need to step back and reframe the situation, which is what prayer is all about. This week, we will examine how Biblical prayer changes our perspective and response to more closely match those of Jesus Christ.