Category Archives: Enlightenment

Learning From Our Limitations!

The older I get, the more I realize that there is still so much for me to learn. The more I truly learn, the more I begin to understand that there is so much that I just don’t know and a lot of it, I can’t know, because I don’t need to know. I just need to make sure that I know the One that does know.

One of the great lessons that life is teaching me is that I have a limited perspective. When we really start to understand this truth, it takes a lot of the pressure off of our having to have everything figured out. There is much in this life that we will never figure out and that is okay. I believe that anything that we don’t know that we need to know, God will explain to us one day and if He doesn’t explain it to us, then we obviously didn’t need to know it and shouldn’t worry about it.

Not only is it important for me to remember that I have a limited perspective, but it is also important to remember that we all see and understand life from our “LIMITED” perspective and this is why we should be extra careful to give and receive GRACE.

8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. 9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts higher than your thoughts. -Isaiah 55:8-9

It is possible for us all to see the same thing and have entirely different opinions about it, based on OUR perspective. So the next time you get ready to judge someone else, you might want to consider their perspective. Next time you think you are right and everyone else is wrong, you might want to consider that things might not be that simple and take a moment to consider the other person’s PERSPECTIVE.

Then story is told of three blind men heard that a strange new animal, called an elephant, had arrived in their town. None of the men knew anything about the shape, size or appearance of an elephant so they decided to approach it and use their hands to get a better picture exactly what an elephant is like. The first man felt the trunk and declared that an elephant was round and long like a snake. The second man touched the elephant’s tusk and announced that the strange animal was smooth and sharp like a spear. The third man felt the elephant’s leg and determined that elephants were thick and curved like a tree trunk.

All of the men described the elephant from their perspective and each man was right, while each man thought the other men were wrong. How often in life to we get screwed up by our limited perspective???

Remember You Have A Limited Perspective!

It is important to remember that we have a limited perspective and can only see and know so much. This is why a relationship with our Creator is so important, because God sees the whole picture. God sees the whole picture, because He is the one that made it! When you don’t understand or life doesn’t make sense, look to the one, Who created it and let Him help you make sense out of the senseless.

Our Limited Perspective, Our Hopes And Fears Become Our Measure Of Life, And When Circumstances Don’t Fit Our Ideas, They Become Our Difficulties.” — Benjamin Franklin

They say that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Many of us live our life on a reoccurring loop of insanity and a big part of the problem is that we allow ourselves to be influenced, manipulated and motivated by our limited perspective, thinking that we know it all. We don’t know it all and that is why nothing changes. Some things in life are not going to change, until we change and we are not going to change until we get a different perspective. Ask God to open your eyes and help you see things as they really are from His vantage point.

This Is The Way!

Our Biggest Challenge: God’s Ways Are Not Our Ways!

I think one of the biggest challenges in life has to be the realization that there is more than one way. I mean 2+4=6, but so does 3+3=6 and they are both right. Live life long enough and you will discover that there is the right way and the wrong way, the easy way and the hard way, God’s way and your way, and we could go on and on and on.

8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. 9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts higher than your thoughts. -Isaiah 55:8-9

You’ve Tried It Your Way!

Let’s get honest and real for a few moments: You’ve tried it your way and things just aren’t lining up and working out. You know there is a better way and you know that better way is God’s way, so why are you so hard headed and reluctant to let go of your way and try God’s way? If it because you are afraid that it might actually work and you might start enjoying this gift called life? Is it because you have become so accustomed to misery that you think there is no other way to live?

I want to challenge you to get really real with yourself for just a few moments. You’ve been doing life your way and how’s that working out for you? Do you really think that you are living up to your God-given potential and are you really experiencing all of the blessings you were created to experience and share? Most of us, if we are honest, have to admit that we are living way below the level of our blessed, created potential and we know that God has so much more in store.

Seriously think about it! Take a look back on your life and living and learn whatever this life is trying to teach you or you will continue to repeat the same mistakes and live the same life. God has better and God wants better for you, but God loves you and will never force his blessings upon you.

If you do what you’ve always done, you will get what you’ve always got! If you want a better and more blessed life, then you have to admit that you don’t have it all figured out and that is totally okay. Once we admit that we don’t have it all figured out, then we can begin to look to the One Who does have it all figured out and He will direct and guide us to where we need to be and give us the strength to do what we need to do, so that our life and living aligns with His plans for blessing and growth.

You can’t, but God can and He has and He will, if you will get out of His way…

The Purpose Of Pain!

In my life, I have had my fair share of pain. Live long enough and you will have more than your fair share as well. Pain is just a part of life and it comes and goes as it pleases, sometimes with a very direct purpose and sometimes, who knows?

Pain, heartache, frustration, disappointment, whatever you would like to call it, comes in all shapes and sizes and from all directions. As I age in this life, one of the things that I think this life is teaching me is that pain always has a purpose.

Sometimes it’s purpose is to act as a warning light that something is wrong and needs to be fixed. Other times, pain is a consequence of a bad or wrong choice or choices we have made. There are times when we are not sure what or why the pain is there, causing us to ask the question: “Why Me?”

When we read the Scriptures, it becomes clear that pain has a purpose and for whatever reason that it has come into our lives, there is great reward and blessing as we learn to handle it in the right way.

3 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; 4 And patience, experience; and experience, hope: 5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. -Romans 5:3-5

Below are three things I am learning about the purpose of pain and the benefits of dealing with it…

Pain Always Has A Purpose!

1.) Don’t waste your pain, if you have to endure it, then grow from it! The Scriptures teach that “tribulation worketh patience”. The way we grow from pain is to not get frustrated by it, distracted because of it, but instead focused in spite of it or maybe because of it. Pain has a way of getting our attention and the key is making sure that our attention is focused in the right direction. Next time you find yourself dealing with pain – ask yourself what is this pain trying to teach me?

2.) Painful things teach us things we didn’t know we needed to know! The Scriptures teach that as “tribulation worketh patience, the patience is giving us experience…” In other words we are learning something, if we are paying attention. It would be a terrible waste to have to endure pain and miss the lesson that it has come to teach us. Looking back on my life, pain has taught me many things: It has taught me that what does not kill you, makes you stronger. It has taught me that sometimes I am wrong, make bad choices and choices have consequences. It has taught me that the world can be cruel, but God is always good. It has taught me that no matter what that God will use even the bad for my good as I love and trust Him…

3.) The key to getting through it, is learning from it and moving on! Most people hate their pain and want to get rid of it, but then are often unwilling to let it go. The Scriptures teach that the “tribulation worketh patience and the patience gives us experience and the experience grows into hope…” Looking back on my life and seeing where I am today, one thing is abundantly clear: The pain, tribulation, frustration, disappointments and frustrations of life have all worked together to bring me to an amazing place of blessing.

Pain is a part of life, learn from it and GROW on!