Friday, June 29, 2012

What's on the Other Side of the Window?

Hanauma Bay, Oahu

Ever get lost in living life?  Where you have this overriding feeling of "missing the forest for the trees"?  The busyness and daily activities have squelched the  zest you have for living, and everything begins to feel like work - even the stuff you normally enjoy.  These are the times for stepping back a moment and reflecting on the big picture again.  


I enjoyed reading this engaging little story with a big lesson from Eugene Peterson  


     Imagine yourself moving into a house with a huge 
     picture window overlooking a grand view across a 
     wide expanse of water enclosed by a range of 
     snow-capped mountains. You have a ringside seat   
     before wild storms and cloud formations, the 
     entire spectrum of sun-illuminated colors in the  
     rocks and trees and wildflowers and water. You are 
     captivated by the view. Several times a day you interrupt your work and stand before 
     this window to take in the majesty and the beauty, thrilled with the botanical and 
     meteorological fireworks. One afternoon you notice some bird droppings on the window 
     glass, get a bucket of water and a towel, and clean it. A couple of days later a rain-storm 
     leaves the window streaked, and the bucket comes out again. Another day visitors come 
     with a tribe of small dirty-fingered children. The moment they leave you see all the 
     smudge-marks on the glass. They are hardly out the door before you have the bucket 
     out... Keeping that window clean develops into an obsessive-compulsive neurosis. You 
     accumulate ladders and buckets and squeegees. You construct a scaffolding both inside 
     and out to make it possible to get to all the difficult corners and heights. You have the 
     cleanest window in North America - but it's now been years since you looked through it. 
     You've become a Pharisee. (The Jesus Way, p 211).

Just as this home owner missed the whole purpose of the picture window, we too can miss what's on the other side of our 'windows'.  To do so, we become as empty and compulsive as the Pharisees in the Bible. We miss life, even when it's right there before our eyes. 

So, what's on the other side of the window for you today?  Stop squeegeeing, take a deep breath and enjoy the life you have been given. 



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