(30)Clearing Our Minds…Our Perspective – Staying Sane in an Insane World

by Eugene Higgins

Our Perspective – Staying sane in an insane world


“These four walls!” A lot of people are tired of staring at their four walls. Apart from the tremendous disadvantage had we only 3 at which to stare, the idiomatic expression – and the querulous attitude it describes – involve something that 21st century humans generally, (and Americans specifically), dread: boredom. We seem to be terrified of quiet, of solitude, of having “nothing to do.” It has been said that the English language created the word “solitude” to express theglory of being alone and the word “loneliness” to express thepain. But I think we have long since forgotten how to tell the difference between them, and, worse still, how to benefit from the first without its devolving into the second. It becomes downright embarrassing to read the biographies and diaries detailing the spiritual exercise and communion of believers in a past day who had no electronic Bibles, cell phones, computers, Internet, or 24-hour news reports at their fingertips. Without the modern, “time-saving” conveniences we have, how did they find time to read the Bible so consistently, work so continuously, pray so constantly, and write so copiously? And why weren’t they bored with the drabness of their life?

Considering that he died in 1963, (the Mesozoic era, electronically-speaking), A. W. Tozer’s words seem to have even greater significance 57 years later:

“’And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. Now when evening came, He was alone there.’ (Matthew 14:23). Modern civilization is so complex as to make the devotional life all but impossible. It wears us out by multiplying distractions and beats us down by destroying our solitude, where otherwise we might drink and renew our strength before going out to face the world again … modern playthings, like pet tiger cubs, have grown so large and dangerous that they threaten to devour us all. What was intended to be a blessing has become a positive curse. No spot is now safe from the world’s intrusion.”

Part of what we as believers are feeling is that this unnatural period has robbed us of so much to which we want to return. The satraps sitting in city and town halls all over the landscape have legislated laws of loneliness and isolation. We want the intermission to end, the interruption to cease, the interlude to conclude so the next act in the play can commence and we can get on with our real life. But what if God has had a hand in all this? What if this were really part of what God planned for us – actually planned – for His people? Here is a remarkable passage from the Book of Job that has been in my mind innumerable times through all of this:

“Also by watering He wearieth the thick cloud: He scattereth His bright cloud: and it is turned round about by His counsels: that they may do whatsoever He commandeth them upon the face of the world in the earth. He causeth it to come, whether for correction, or for His land, or for mercy. Hearken unto this, O Job: stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God” (Job 37:11-13).

The recording of everything said by Job’s friends was truly inspired, but not everything they said was inspired truth, particularly their accusations against him. However, Elihu’s statement here is profound – “He causeth it to come, whether for correction, or for His land, or for mercy.” God may have more than one purpose in causing something to happen. The Psalmist expressed it even more succinctly: “Fire, and hail; snow, and vapour; stormy wind fulfilling His word” (Ps 148:8). Was this the weighty truth that was at work in the mind of the Apostle Paul when he was under house arrest (shades of 2020!) and wrote, “But I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel” (Php 1:12). Having that perspective – “God has me here for a purpose” – made an incredible difference in how he viewed the intermission, the down-time, the limitations. Instead of staring at the four walls, he worked for God. He reached souls! He wrote saints! He rejoiced (despite his circumstances) and told us to rejoice (despite ours)! “Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice” (Php 4:4). More than 1900 years before the saying was coined, Paul implemented this important principle: “Make your life a mission – not an intermission.” You can speak of it as “redeeming the time,” “seizing the day” (“Carpe Diem”), “living in the now” – however you wish to describe it, in Paul’s experience, no lull or lacuna was viewed as lost time.

So, again, is it possible that God has sent this for correction, or for His land, or for mercy? Many, many believers have spoken of having had their hearts made hungrier for Heaven; of finding that their enjoyment of fellowship with believers has increased exponentially; that their care for the disadvantaged has grown immensely; that their concern for souls has deepened enormously; and that their expectation of the Lords’s coming has heightened dramatically and preeminently. To me, that sounds suspiciously like the beginnings of a revival! To me, that sounds as though God is changing our perspective.

One west coast emergency room doctor, who was in critical condition after being diagnosed with COVID-19, said it took him nearly a month to gain his strength back. He was placed on a ventilator and the next memory he has was of waking up about 16 days later. His lungs, liver, kidneys, and heart had all gone into organ failure, “multi-system organ failure.” He woke up to find that the world had shut down and that his May 16 wedding was postponed. But, he said, it wasn’t a big deal considering everything else going on in the world. “Perspective changes, I tell you. When you survive something like I survived, you realize, that’s all window dressing. It doesn’t matter.”

“Perspective changes!” I wonder what it would do to our spirits if our perspective were to change? A recent poll asked respondents what they were doing to improve their mental health. While checking on loved ones was the most important item, what came in third at 30% of those polled, was the importance of limiting their news consumption – and remember, this was in order to improve their mental health! Apparently, if your daily diet is going to be the corrosive content of a melancholy media’s persistent pessimism, you might as well – to put it in graphic Biblical language – pull out your hair, don sackcloth and ashes, and scrape open wounds with a rough potsherd. Better to turn off the prophets of gloom and doom, who profit from your panic and pain, and tune into the scriptures of truth. Here is great advice for mental health and equilibrium – “Rejoice alway!” The man who wrote that also wrote “As sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing.” Perhaps he knew of another “Alway” promise, one that house arrest, imprisonment, confinement, and “these four walls” could not exclude:

“Lo, I am with you ALWAY, even unto the end of the world. Amen” (Matthew 28:20).

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