My four-year old grandson Micah has his own unique perspective on the world. One day, he, his seven-year old brother Josiah, and his dad (age unrevealed), were in the bathroom brushing their teeth when the little guy decided to give them a lesson in personal hygiene.
“First you brush you teeth,” Micah instructed. “Yes …”
“Then you brush your tongue.” “Uh, huh …”
“Then you pick your nose.” “Ah!”
I’m not sure Micah’s interpretation of the world will make the grade-school health textbooks next year, but it does offer something to think about.
Each one of us has his own “worldview” and it filters our interpretation of everything that happens and determines how we perceive the world around us. The Germans call it, “Weltanschauung.”
A fwisted worldview allows dictators to kill thousands so that they can keep their place, and seemingly suffer no qualms. It’s why Saul could slaughter a family of priests or Herod could massacre all the babies under two years of age around Bethlehem. “What is good for me is good for the country,” they reason, “so even though it’s disagreeable it has to be done.”
A positive worldview caused Lillian Thrasher to give up her own plans a few weeks before marriage and sail for Egypt. There, in a lifetime of adventure and danger, she raised thousands of orphaned Egyptian children and took care of widows. In her worldview, what God wanted was more important than what she wanted.
Can you resume your worldview in one sentence? For most the goal of life is simply to, “Be happy.” Jefferson immortalized “the pursuit of happiness” in the United States constitution, and when pollsters ask, most people claim to be reasonably happy—they just don’t act like it.
Can I suggest another worldview: one that can be summed up in two words? “Please God.”
Not “Pleeease God!”, give me what I want, but continually asking the question, “Does this please You, Lord?” We’re constantly measuring our life against the Bible to see if we’re living as He wishes, constantly trying to listen to His voice in us which directs us.
“Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant—dog dung. I’ve dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him. I didn’t want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ—God’s righteousness.
“I gave up all that inferior stuff so I could know Christ personally, experience his resurrection power, be a partner in his suffering, and go all the way with him to death itself. If there was any way to get in on the resurrection from the dead, I wanted to do it.(Phil. 3:9-11, The Message)
Jesus spoke of those who lost their life and gained it, and others who tried to gain it but lost it. The truth is, serving God and pleasing Him isn’t always the easier road in life. Often you have more difficulty, not less. But it is the rich, fulfilling road in life.
What’s your worldview?
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Hmmm…
« We are no longer contagious. Spirit-filled believers spend more time chasing “financial breakthroughs” than lost souls. We have rejected sacrifice and compassion and embraced a counterfeit gospel that produces bored, selfish spectators.” J. Lee Grady