“Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; but blessed is he who keeps the law.” Proverbs 29:18 NIV
In a time when we have nearly instant access to information of all kinds, do we really see things more clearly? Is it possible that our addiction to the web, texts, tweets and the incessant flow of stuff that floods our brains makes us less receptive to seeing the things that we really need to see? I wonder if we are becoming trivialized by all this input; perhaps we are missing something.
Perspective is everything. Perspective is more than more information. It is the overall picture, the way we fit the pieces together – how we make sense of our lives, our world. It is how we understand what is significant and important, and why.
Our perspective will determine what we become and what we do, because “as we think within ourselves, so we are.” (Prov. 23:7) Thus perspective either limits or expands our life. How often have we suddenly become aware of some new fact or insight that entirely reshapes the way we see the whole? And this new “whole” sets our lives in a new direction; we are so impressed with this new reality that we must act accordingly, we can do no other.[1]
How can we escape the prison of our limited and narrow thinking? Only by revelation. Only God can save us from the hardening of our mental arteries. Proverbs 29:18 implies that only with God’s truth (the “law”) comes the revelation that enables us, empowers us, to have direction and focus in the course of our lives. Otherwise we simply drift, carried along by the trivial (frankly, silly) and unimportant of the culture around us. Our responsibility? To repent that we have not taken seriously the Word of God and the leadership of the Spirit of Truth and to now choose to fill our minds and hearts with what fills the mind and heart of God. We can escape, if we will do this.
Of course, all of this is dangerous stuff. You might change, you might risk, you might fall out of love with the things of this world and fall in love with the things of eternity – and then what might be possible?
[1] This is the very essence of revival – suddenly the church awakens to things from God’s perspective and the people of God are often struck down (sometimes literally) with this awesome and terrible sight.
