IT DEPENDS UPON OUR PERSPECTIVE

Albert Camus:" Poverty prevented me from judging that all was well under the sun and in history; the sun taught me that history was not all." Camus was a philosopher, one of the many I had to study while in college pursuing my major in philosophy. I must admit I hated philosophy at the time perhaps only because the choice of majors was not mine to make. I/we had no choice. But it did teach me to think, I think.

Sometimes we think too much. Sometimes we, philosophers or no, have our heads somewhere else other than in the real world. Sometimes our minds our obsessed with ideas rather than with reality. Philosophers can give great explanations of why things are the way they are but they also often have little idea of how to deal with those very realities. Such led to Camus' observation.

When we are in the midst of a mess, it is very difficult for us to see anything clearly, to see the situation from afar, with a philosophical understanding. When we are up to our ears in alligators, well, you get the picture. Nevertheless, we must try as we might to not lose sight of the larger picture, the view, if you will, from the sun. For the view from the sun, as Camus states, allows us to have another perspective on the mess.

That perspective does not mean that the mess will either go away or that it suddenly does not become a mess. It simply means that the mess is only one part of the picture and not the total picture.

The total picture, the big picture, is what we need to have when we are bogged down by the present, as we often are in this life, life being what it is and of which is so much out of our control. For it is often only the big picture that allows us to realize that "this, too, shall pass, someday." The big picture is simply what gives us hope. Without hope, we die -- even while very much alive.

Yet, it is difficult to be hopeful when all you can see is a present that is filled with pain. It was difficult for Jesus to be hopeful there in the Garden of Gethsemane when his present and near future was full of pain and suffering. His human perspective was clouded by his present fear of the future pain. Yet what allowed Jesus to endure was his view from the sun, his view as the Son.

That same view, that same perspective can be ours as well. That same ability to find hope amidst despair can be ours. That same faith in God who will not abandon us ever is what can lead us through the mess, out from under the cloud to see, really see through the eyes of that faith, what good is in store for those who believe.

But let us not be deceived: it is not easy. The present difficulties can always easily be overwhelming, no matter what those difficulties are. The view from the sun, looking at the present from a different perspective, may not, probably cannot, take away the present pain. It still must be endured. It is our faith in God that sees us through, that gives us that different – and correct – perspective.