Greater Perspective

Belatedly sharing this blog entry that I wrote a few weeks ago, offline:


10668m above Paris, and a can just see a cloud opening around the Arc de triomphe - beautiful! When we took off from Heathrow, it was exceptionally foggy, and our early morning flight departed fairly late. (I can only imagine the challenge a pilot faces to take off, if it's too foggy to even drive properly!)

Mere seconds after lift off, we gained enough hight to be above the fog and cloud bank, and it was a beautiful blue sunny day... just meters above the foggy ground. (It was really stunning to see peaks and high structures of London protruding above into the sun!)

Perspective makes such a huge difference. It's not a foggy day. It's not even a foggy morning. It's merely temporarily foggy at Heathrow ground level. 

Last night, while dining with my wife, I saw a friend at the restaurant who lost his young wife to cancer a few years ago, and he's now juggling his own business and kids on his own: How can I even consider complaining about work-life balance?

Or, yesterday morning, Peter the friendly ticket checker at Marylebone station got told he and the team have been made redundant, and he's now job hunting for Christmas.

I friend once taught me to always have friends and contact with three groups of people. 

• Some like you, sharing similar challenges as you do
• some who "made it", allowing you to grow and aspire to (and learn from the mistakes and downside of the "higher" life)
• some who struggle more than you, so that you can appreciate what you have, and help them more.

All of this provide perspective, ultimately.

If you read this far - thank you - then I'll be failing you if I did not also give you a sneak peek at an even bigger perspective: I'm planning to go to heaven. (Not because I'm good or smart or go to church, but simply because my badness is forgiven through Christ Jesus, and his Christmas gift to me (and you too, if you want it, just take it!) is life to the full, also eternal life.) I'm planning to be around in 380 million years, and a gazillion years after that too. So long-term planning no longer means "which next career move" or "what retirement investment"... it means having God's perspective on what really matters. That God perspective, is even brighter than the sunny view over the Alps.

God Bless! Gave a great day!