What Do You See?
Dan Kunz
That question might be asked of people in many different situations. An art teacher may ask his students while studying a piece of art in a local gallery. A ship’s captain may ask a sailor as he scans the horizon on the open ocean. A biology teacher may ask a person peering into a microscope eyepiece. A romantic young man may ask the object of his affection as she gazes into a star-filled sky.
My wife and I were recently blessed to be able to travel to Namibia on a hunting trip. One of the methods used there is called “spot and stalk”. As you walk or drive through the vast, brush-filled savannahs looking for game. Once you spot what you may want to harvest, you then stalk up as close as you can get. Some of our group (including my wife), did very well at the spotting part and others of us (me), did better at the stalking part. It was getting a little frustrating for me when I realized my problem – I was looking at the wrong thing! The countryside is covered in grass anywhere from knee to waist high. In some places it has a good deal of brush interspersed with the grass. The reason others were seeing animals and I wasn’t, was that I was looking at the brush while they were looking at the grass. That’s how we’d do it in the Upper Midwest. We were not in the Upper Midwest. Once I started looking at the grassy areas and stopped focusing on the brush, I began to see animals, too. My ego appreciated that immensely!
As we live out the journey of our lives here on this earth, could the same thing happen to us? Has it ever happened to you? Is it happening to you right this moment? Like the old “hidden nut” game, where the sleight-of-hand artist quickly manipulates three cups on a tabletop, under one of which lies a chestnut, the devil loves to confuse us and damage our faith by enticing us to look at the wrong thing(s). Like a hunter looking at the brush instead of the grass, do you ever focus so much on what’s wrong in your life, you don’t see all the good? It’s hard to believe that someone could miss an animal as large as an eland (look it up, they’re the size of a moose) standing in a relatively open grassy area, but it happens if you’re looking in the wrong place.
Try to focus on anything else when you’ve just stubbed you toe, or have an itch right between your shoulder blades, or you haven’t eaten in ten hours. It’s not too easy is it? Like a nagging toothache, our troubles can sometimes take up our entire focus. A staggering report from your doctor, the sudden death of a loved one, the loss of a job you thought you’d have for the rest of your working life, are all terrible circumstances, but we can’t let them become our only thought. Do you have a supportive family? Do you and your loved ones share the firm hope of life eternal? Do you have marketable skills or an unfulfilled desire to try something new in your life? We quite often can’t control our circumstances, but we can control how we react to them. What do you see – a insurmountable problem or an opportunity to trust your Heavenly Father and his unsurpassed love for you? Philippians 4:8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if anything is excellent, and if anything is praiseworthy, think about these things.