KEEPING THE WIDE-ANGLE VIEW

In the midst of controversy, one of the first casualties is perspective. It begins to narrow, and, if the process is not checked, perspective may eventually disappear. I’ve learned the importance of widening my perspective, especially in times of crisis.

Ralph Emerson once said, “The supreme lesson of life is to learn what the centuries say against the hours.”

What destroys perspective is our penchant to measure ministry on too small a scale. We lose the wide-angle view because we’re riveted on the close-up. Using a microscopic lens, even a harmless spider looks like a hairy, horrible monster. Most of us would never clean cobwebs from the house if we focused on the close-up view of spiders.

When Goliath pressured the Israelites, all the soldiers cowered. “He’s so big, we can never kill him,” they shuddered. That’s the close-up view.

With a wider view, young David looked at the same giant and thought, He’s so big, I can’t miss.

I once fought with Emerson. While I agreed that life should be measured by the stand of time, not the stopwatch, I also knew I would not be around for two or three centuries. I dismissed his insight.

But more recently, I’ve learned to use a device to begin lengthening and widening my perspective. The device is the thickest three-ring binder I could buy. Through the year, I place in it all the important committee reports, correspondence from the church bureaucracy, love letters, hate mail, pleas for help, and poignant notes of gratitude for personal ministry or for what our church has accomplished.

Then, late in July before I go on vacation, I leaf through that huge notebook. It has become a red-letter day. It never fails to energize me and widen my perspective. It’s amazing how what was a burning issue last October pales by July. What irked me in early winter thawed with the ice.

I read the letters that bristle and hurl daggers my way. “What price ministry?” I ask. I reread the notes of thanks and heartfelt encouragements. “What serendipities,” I muse.

Savoring the moments, I take most of the day to follow Emerson’s advice. Now I can hardly wait for that magic July date when I measure ministry not by the hours but by the months-and regain a wide-angle perspective.

-Jack R. Van Ens