A View from Space (or Heaven!)
The talk by Col. Rick Searfoss, three time NASA Space Shuttle pilot/commander, spoke at the college Friday night. His humor, comments on leadership, and observations from his years of experience made for a very interesting talk. One thing really jumped out at me though. He showed a picture similar to this one:
and commented on how from space, you could see no political boundaries and how he thought while passing over this area that the people in the region below had created quite a mess. He said how wonderful it would be if we could
"break down all the self-imposed walls and barriers and see ourselves as it looks from space."Self-imposed barriers and walls stop a lot of people from seeing the bigger picture, from seeing how things are from the outside looking in. Perhaps it would be useful if we all learned how to step back away from the issues that seem to overwhelm our lives and keep in mind what is really going on here. So many people (myself included at times) get caught up in the drama of daily life. What if we could focus on forever, instead? Would that change how we look at things? How we interact with other people?
Steve and I are reading through the "Purpose-Driven Life" together. This morning he read Chapter 6: Life is a Temporary Assignment. In it, we are reminded that "I am here on earth for just a little while" (Psalm 119:19 TEV). Part of the chapter reads:
"In order to keep us from becoming too attached to earth, God allows us to feel a significant amount of discontent and dissatisfaction in life -- longings that will never be fulfilled here on this side of eternity. We're not completely happy here because we're not supposed to be! Earth is not our final home; we were created for something much better.What if we could see ourselves, and those around us, from an eternal perspective? See ourselves as God sees us? Why is that such a difficult thing to do sometimes?A fish would never be happy living on land, because it was made for water. An eagle could never feel satisfied if it wasn't allowed to fly. You will never be completely satisfied on earth, because you were made for more. You will have happy moments here, but nothing compared with what God has planned for you.
Realizing that life on earth is just a temporary assignment should radically alter your values. Eternal values, not temporal ones, should become the deciding factors for your decisions. As C.S. Lewis observed, "All that is not eternal is eternally useless." The Bible says, "We fix our eyes not what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."
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