by Bonnie Schultz

It behooves us all to humble ourselves.

Word games are popular at our house. Word Connect is a favorite. The challenge is to make several different words out of up to seven given letters, randomly laid out in a circle. 

Sometimes I immediately see the whole word at a glance. Other times, I stare and stare at those letters and find myself stuck. I’m certain there is not another word to be made out of that collection of letters. The device on which I play allows me to shuffle the letters into a new configuration and suddenly the elusive word is there. What has changed? My perspective! 

Why is it important to gain another perspective?  To get the word?

When I play Word Connect and I get the word, it finally makes sense. The letters all fitting in their right place gives meaning to the letters. Now I understand.  Getting the word is satisfying. I have closure. I now know that I know.  A-ha! Getting unstuck is freeing. I can move on to the next challenge. 

Playing a word game and getting it right is a small thing. It’s a small glimpse of a small piece of reality. But this experience points me to the satisfaction of understanding THE WORD. Truth. Reality. Not just my perspective, but the truth. This really sets me free. This really satisfies. 

You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.

-John 8:32  (NKJV)

The other day while playing Word Connect my husband asked, “Why is it that I look and look at those letters, and can’t see the word? But as soon as I am given the first letter, the word comes to me just like that? Boom!”  It would seem when we get the beginning right we progress quickly to the correct conclusion.

I am reminded of Andy Stanley’s book, Starting Point.  When we start at the right point we can make better progress to our true destination.  Andy says the starting point is Jesus. When we get the right understanding of Him, we can find our way. Jesus’ life clears up the mystery about God. Our misconceptions about God.  When we lack information we “make stuff up.” It all depends on our own perspective.  Turns out I need Someone revealing the first letter to me.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.  In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

- John 1:1-4 (NIV)

Why is it important to gain a true understanding of reality and not just hang on to our perceptions, to our small pieces of it? 

In an interview with Ravi Zacharias, (Indian born, Canadian-American Christian apologist), re-aired recently on The Eric Metaxas Show, Ravi shared that as a seventeen-year-old he couldn’t find the meaning to his life. He had found pieces of meaning but they didn’t fit altogether in his mind. This was so disturbing to him that he tried to end his life. When his suicide attempt failed, he devoted the rest of his life to uncovering the truth.

Ultimately, discovering reality is a life and death question. 

It may seem much of our lives that we live on bread. But there is another level of life that bread won’t satisfy.  For this Jesus offers “living bread” that satisfies with resolution. This hunger is satisfied with reality. It frees from the angst of the quest. We can have peace.

There are so many lenses through which to look in an effort to perceive reality that no human could possibly ever attain the whole view.  At any given time I may take the micro view or I may take the macro view. While focusing on the one I lose focus on the other. I either can’t see the forest for the trees or the tree for the forest. I can learn to shift back and forth. I can step outside my own thoughts, to think about my thinking. I can let someone else share their alternate perspective. When they do, sometimes I can see what they see. Can anyone of us begin to grasp the number of all the things that are true at the same time, throughout all of time? 

To gain more understanding of reality, I must get out of my environment altogether. I get an idea of this by leaving the ground, flying above it in an airplane. Being above it all changes my perspective even on what is big and what is small.  Only Someone with the ultimate perspective can know and see all.  Someone outside of humanity. 

E. James Wilder says it well in his book, The Pandora Problem, 

Humility is in order when dealing with more people than we can know, in a universe much bigger than we can grasp over a history much longer than we can track.

Now, how about that humble pie?

Resources

We’ve created a free downloadable PDF to explore the article deeper. It contains discussion questions about the topic in general terms that will give you a jumping-off point for beginning a conversation.

The second page contains a way to see the topic from a biblical perspective.

And finally, to go deeper into the subject, we have chosen a few curated resources to explore from other authors’ and thinkers’ research or perspectives.

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