I notice everywhere the item that either becomes, or is, important to me. We all do this. Something new in our life becomes our frame of reference. Equally, something we’ve connected to for decades defines our frame of reference, experience, and even outlook.
Consider my birth year. 1955. Just 10 years after WWII, and yet not in the bumper crop of baby boomers, yet I’m counted as one of “them”. For a long time the national speed limit was the double nickel. 55. But when I started Freeway driving, it was still the big 7-0!
Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Kevin Costner share my birth year. Einstein died the same year, just 3 months after my birth. The Muppets got their start. Disneyland opened. Gunsmoke! Rosa Parks refused to sit in the back of the bus.
And you? What experiences define your frame of reference?
I’ve been alive during all the 60’s. Space Program. Man on the Moon. Assassinations of JFK, RFK, MLK. Hippies. Drug culture. Vietnam. Burn the draft card, the bra, and the flag. Anti-war protest everywhere. Segregation. Desegregation. Bell Bottom’s. Psychedelic colors. Woodstock. Beatles.
Bump it a decade. I fell in love with Computers! Then, 1972, Nixon wins re-election by a landslide, and up pops Watergate. I met my bride and we married. My first born breathed his first. Another decade? Alaska. My second born.
Yet. Everything I’ve mentioned defines me to a common era based on locale. Another continent? The list would be different.
My Thoughts This Morning
I guess what I’m thinking this morning is this:
We are framed by the things we reference the most.
Think about it. Your previous time of life, whether a decade, generation, or before/after Y2K, 9/11… Choose your own reference based on who you are, and realize that life frames your experience and what you choose to focus on.
For some it’s Hollywood and entertainment, music, politics, travel, economy, equality, family. Others? Well, we all have a different focus. Why? We are each unique. You’ve been through things I’ve never been through and don’t understand. I’m not sure I could ever relate.
The one thing I’ve noted as I wrote this morning, my list had a glaring of God. There is no mention of God. Yet, that’s very important to me. Salvation. Holiness. Righteousness. Grace. Mercy. Peace. Love.
In fact, my walk with God is more important to me than anything else I’ve mentioned to this point! So, why don’t I include God in the list? The fact that it’s missing is not an anathema against my belief system, rather, I’m trying to share with a potential global audience the things that give my my worldview a frame of reference.
Shoebox Thought
Imagine you have a shoebox crowded with your frame of reference. Nothing else will fit in, unless you take something out. What if you push God to the center,? Those things on the edges will fall over the edge. Were they important? Perhaps. But maybe not as important as what’s in the center.
This begs the question. What’s most important that you put at the center of your life and frame everything else by it?
My grandmother had a shoebox of recipes. Loaded with handwritten, cut-out’s, from herself and others. When the box became full, she wrote on every flat edge. Top. Bottom of top. Bottom. Sides. You name it? If you could write on it, then a recipe was scrawled upon it.
Why not get a larger box? I might as well ask you why don’t you enlarge your frame of reference? You know, see a bigger picture of life than your little corner of the world.
We are around people, or at least we know of them, who have a global shoebox that is their focus. Most of us? Toddler shoes. Baby views. Anchored to “my little corner of the world only”.
Here’s My Thought Today
We should have a spiritual foundation upon which everything else is built. Jesus said that the words he spoke were “Spirit and Life” . (John 6:63) My takeaway? The words we get from the Holy Word of God are for the use in our spiritual walk, and the life we live here and now.
Jesus commissions the new church to reach the world (global), going to all nations. (Matthew 28:19-20). Take special note, those nations are not only out there. They are right here in our little corner of the world!
Just as the Apostle Paul teaches us focus, we need to learn how to spotlight the things that are necessary to life. Paul shares the “Fruit of the Spirit” (Galatians 5:22-23), the “Gifts of the Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:8-10) and the focus of thinking about Good Things (Philippians 4:8-9).
Now, fill your shoebox with the Word of God and let it guide you into what else your personal worldview looks like. Let it be the first thing that drives all other facets of your life.
What am I trying to say? Put God first, and all these other things will be added to you. (Matthew 6:33) Keep your perspective rightly paced and everything else will fall into place.