Caesura: Perspective

---

I love you, Lord, my strength.

The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

Psalm 18:1-2 (NIV)

---

Welcome to another 'Caesura', another pause in your week. Take time to be with your Father.

At the start of this post I wonder...why do you get up in a morning? What motivates you? What offers your life perspective? How do you put things into context?

I find myself struggling at the moment with being able to empathise with the way that some people rationalise their lives. I have become increasingly angry (not a trait I want to display) at the way some people have this expectation that life will be perfect, with a golden-haze and handed to them on a plate. At University, I see such extremes which absolutely baffle me. I have friends who are going through unspeakable evils in their lives, who are not even sure that they will be able to use the degree they are so passionately studying for and then I have friends who are complaining that they can't go on the usual three holidays abroad because their parents won't pay for them. As I sit here, I wonder...where have we gone wrong? Just this week, I have a friend who has received a diagnosis which is far from perfect and I just close my eyes and cry out!

Lord! I am just struggling to compute all that is going on around me! I trust you, but how can this be happening? How is it fair?

I can feel my chest tightening as I think more about it. As I sit there I can feel a weight descending.

I take a breath. Practising the pause.

It is then that the Lord reminds me of the truth within my own story. The weight begins to lift. He gives me the words to say. I find myself in a room with a friend who has been given devastating news and the opportunity to share with him the truths about my faith and my story. We shared the day together and had a few laughs as well as tears. Before that day, we weren't particularly close but we were close enough that I knew that he wasn't a believer. At the end of the day, as he was heading for the door, he asked me a simple question, but it took me by surprise. "Will you pray with me?" I was stunned. This guy who I had barely known, who was not from a religious background, had seen in me something that made him feel like I was the person to spend the day with and not only that, but to pray with him. What a day! My mind turned to the poem footprints in the sand, so I found it online and read it to him. I prayed and he left.

I can't help but share this. What a faith-testing, emotion-shattering, God-led day. You see, I take two things from this experience. Firstly, you don't know what impact you are having on others lives, so don't be disheartened when you think you are not doing anything tangible. Secondly, His strength is perfect. God will provide and get you through. Just like in the poem, when there is only one set of footprints in the sand, it isn't that you were by yourself, but rather, that He was carrying you.

So, I wonder what your perspective is? Is it a 'worldly' perspective; one of fame, greed and material wealth? Or is it a 'heavenly' perspective, one of love, grace and the cross? You see, none of us are guaranteed tomorrow, what perspective do you have?

---

He whispered, "My precious child, I love you and will never leave you Never, ever, during your trials and testings. When you saw only one set of footprints, It was then that I carried you."

Excerpt from the poem "Footprints in the Sand"

---