Over my office door I have a sign that reads, PERSPECTIVE. It is a simple reminder that all of life is a gift to me, that I do not have forever on this planet, that some things don’t matter as much as other things, and that in the end my life is being shaped and formed by the Word I believe is the Word of God.

PERSPECTIVE was driven home again to me recently in my reading of the letter of James. In James 4:14 we are told, “You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.” The first time I read that I thought, “Well, that stinks. I’m just a vapor and that’s it?” But I read further and realized that James was telling us that our days are numbered and that we have no guarantee of longevity, and that even if we live a long life, it pales in comparison to all of history and eternity. James tells us, “You do not know what your life will be like tomorrow” (vs. 14), and we don’t.

So, here’s the deal it seems. We can live in denial concerning our status in the world or we can “draw near to God” knowing that as we do so “he will draw near to [us]. A lot of people choose to leave God out of the loop, and there are people in cemeteries all around the country who didn’t plan on arriving there the day they arrived.

Through James God says to us, Wise up. Gain perspective. Broaden your horizons. Enlarge your outlook. More precisely He says, “Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you” (vs. 10). God size reality awaits us if we will slow down, see the big picture, let God be God in our stories, and live with His Sovereign PERSPECTIVE in mind.

“God…gives grace to the humble,” (vs. 6) so submit to Him, draw near to Him, live for Him, and let Him work His works of grace in you. It will be the ride of your life.

It is amazing how the Psalms of the Old Testament so clearly speak to the issues of our lives today. They seem to pray for us, don’t they? They speak for us and moan for us, and complain for us, and cry out to God for us. They give us permission to work out our humanity in the relationship we have with God. They let us be human, in fact, and show us how to be real and honest and transparent before God. In the psalms the human meets up with the Divine, and we see that God is with us in the very stuff of our lives.

Psalm 116 is an example in this. Verse three tells us that the writer had faced many serious issues of life. “The cords of death encompassed and the terrors of Sheol came upon me; I found distress and sorrow.” Rather than abandoned God in his suffering and questions, the psalmist “called upon the name of the Lord” (vs. 4). Instead of using his pain as a reason to stand against the reality of God, he took his pain into the very heart of God and proclaimed there, “Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; yes, our God is compassionate” (vs. 5).

In this, we see that who the Lord is to the psalmist saturates the very heart of what it means for him to live in this world. His testimony is, “I love the Lord, because He hears my voice and my supplications” (vs. 1). Life was just as hard for him as it is for everybody, but he lived is life within the life of God.

Where do we live our lives? How influential is God in the very real stuff of our daily living? May God help us to live and move and have our being within His very life. The reality of life in this world may or may not change, but being in a personal and vital relation with God through faith defines life in a fresh new ways for us. It caused the psalmist to say, “Return to your rest, o my soul, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you” (vs. 7).