A Matter of Perspective……

One of the good habits I’ve started during this time of transition is to walk for an hour or two each afternoon. I realize it doesn’t sound like much but for someone who has been pretty sedentary for several years and overweight, it’s a big step. After about five or six weeks of walking three to four miles per day, I can finally tell a difference in how I feel.One park I walk in has a path that is “0.8” miles. Each tenth of a mile is marked in big yellow numbers on the right side of the path starting at “0.0.” But I never found the “0.1” marker. It appeared to me that the path was marked “0.0” then jumped to “0.2.” As I walked, I felt I knew where the “0.1” marker should be but when I walked by, I never saw it. One day though, I got this wild hair of an idea. Instead of walking the path so the numbers ascended, I decided to go the opposite way, starting at “0.8.” (Pretty wild life I lead these days, isn’t it?)So here I am, walking on a side of the path that I never walked on. I usually try to stick to the right side of the path so I don’t get in the way of the joggers and bike riders. Wouldn’t you know it? Right where I thought it should be was the “0.1” marker but it was on the opposite side of the path. I never saw it until I decided to change direction and consequently, my perspective of the path. Now I see it no matter which direction I’m walking. It’s there and always was. It never changed, but I needed to change, in order to see it.Immediately after that happened, I began to wonder how many things I’ve missed in life because of my perspective. How many things from friends or family or worse yet, from God, had I missed because I was going about life the same way I’ve always done. I wonder what I would have heard or seen if my perspective had changed a bit.Lord, help me not to become so controlled by my habits that I miss out on the things you have for me!

Always in Pursuit!