Thought of the day: Perspective

I am a nervous traveler. Don't know why. Or how this became a part of who I am. But, being nervous when I travel is most assuredly a part of me. Maybe I like control too much. As I have gotten older I have come to realize that a lot of the things I don't like about who I am, such as being a control freak, are directly or even indirectly related to my sin nature. Being a control freak: check. Working on it: check.

All this to say that my control craving self gets really nervous when it is time to fly. Not until I am sitting in the airplane seat, buckled up with my things properly stowed do I really relax. Leading up to this point I am constantly worried. Will I make it to the gate on time? What if someone planted something in my bag or worse on my person and the naked body scanner detects it and I get thrown into prison? What if they change my gate? I hope I don't have to sit in the middle. What if I have to get up and pee during the flight- no, that won't do. I should go pee right now. I literally drive myself crazy with these thoughts.

This week while I was sitting at my gate in the airport and subsequently driving myself crazy with these all consuming, control freak thoughts I got to looking around and realized that I had no idea how the boarding process worked for this particular airline. Great, just what I needed one more worry to add to my list of ridiculousness. I had this letter and number on my boarding pass and no seat assignment. And there were these poles near the gate that also had numbers on them but no letters. To add to my confusion these poles had a bunch of numbers in a row, but not my number. Great. So I am sitting there and thinking through my plan of action for when the time comes for me to board this plane. Maybe I should ask someone? But no, you wouldn't want to do that and appear foolish- another one of my sin nature faults: Pride. But, that's a whole other blog. Maybe I should just walk to Tennessee? Let me tell you, sometimes it is exhausting living with this brain. Ridiculous. I decided to stand up and get a closer look at these "boarding poles" and suddenly when I changed position I could see clearly. It all made sense. My number was there, it was just on the other side. There were even monitors above the poles that flashed the letters as they were boarding so you knew exactly what to do and when to do it. All that worrying for nothing.

You see, all I needed was a little perspective.

This got me to thinking. How often do I do this in my life? I try to control every little thing. I worry and I wonder. Things don't seem to make sense or line up to my plan, or go the way I think things should go. I find myself questioning. Why doesn't it make sense? What am I missing? Why don't I understand? And not only that- but, I think it isn't fair that I don't understand! When often times, all I need is a little perspective. I need to adjust my vision to match that of God's. What does God see? I serve a God who knows all the answers and not only sees the big picture- but created and controls it. How do I need to adjust my position to see what God sees? And even more importantly- how do I need to let go and trust my Father even when I don't get to see what God sees? I bet there would be a lot less worrying on my part if I learned this.