outlook

Outlook involves our perspective. While I don't like heights, I do like high elevations which feel safe to me. It's fun to look down and see for miles around. No matter where we are, we see things from that vantage point. Where we live I miss seeing the horizons, blocked by houses. But what we do see is interesting, as in trees, flowers, grass, houses, etc.

In life we need nothing less than a change of outlook which comes from a perspective only God can give us. "In Jesus" is key for this, because by faith we can attain a new outlook through Jesus and his redemptive work for us. I use the word attain because I believe this faith requires some ongoing effort on our part. And that we don't ordinarily just arrive to a higher, godly perspective and outlook.

This is part of what I'm working on in my life. To have more and more of the outlook and perspective that God wants for us in Jesus. This comes by the work of God's Spirit in us for change through the word of God, in community in Jesus, as those living in the world in mission to the world. And this comes over time.

At certain points I believe my outlook and perspective can be weak and lacking. I am tempted at those points to give in to a mediocre kind of life, not the life God calls us to in Jesus. But in Jesus God calls us higher and higher, towards a heavenly life even in our present lives, to press on to fulfill nothing short of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus for us. Realized in that context in Philippians at the end of the race, but changing our outlook and perspective even during our present lives -evident in that passage- as well.

What would you like to share on this?