Perspective changes everything

Twenty years ago, I was driving to work the same way I went every day. It was an average commute until I was about to make my way onto the freeway. I felt a big thud and immediately looked in my rear view mirror. I saw my brake light glass shatter. As I pulled over, the car behind me sped off at high speed. Had I just been in a hit and run accident? I got out of the car to assess the damage. I found a huge dent in the back of my car. I had been hit. When the police arrived, they asked me what had happened. I told them my story and how I believed it was a hit and run. But the pieces of my experience were not adding up. We were all confused. I left unresolved.

At work, I was angry and frustrated. I kept thinking of that car that zoomed past me. They had left me to pay for the damages on my own. After I got home from my shift, my mom informed me that the police had called. That car, the one I had been silently cursing all night, had not hit me after all. But had chased down the owner of a trailer who had lost its tire–a tire that had bounced down and hit the back of my car and went merrily on its way to the ditch below.

They weren’t the bad people I imagined them to be. They were now my heroes. I would have judged them much differently if I had been blessed with a different perspective. Sometimes perspective is everything.

Our perspective can change a lot of things. It can affect our decision making, our faith, our mood, our hope, our patience, our judgments and how we treat others. It really can affect everything.

As I grow older and hopefully wiser, I realize how much my perspective has affected my judgments and decision making. Judging and comparing things seems to be a part of my daily life. I am an over researcher, which is a blessing and a curse. You may find me researching anything. Which gas station is selling the cheapest gas? Which bait will bring in the most fish? What meal can I make that my whole family will enjoy? What is the fastest route to the ball field? What chicken nugget is the healthiest and cheapest? Sometimes judging and comparing can pay off. But when it comes to judging others, we have been commanded to stop it. Matthew 7:1, it says, “Judge not, that ye be not judged.”

No amount of internet research and label comparisons will allow us to accurately judge others because we will never have God’s perspective. He knows their hearts. He knows their weaknesses. He knows their strengths. He knows their past. He knows their future. Just as He knows us. He knows all of us more intimately than anyone can comprehend. Without God’s perspective, judging and comparing ourselves to others is pointless.

Theodore Roosevelt said “Comparison is the thief of joy.” May I also add that comparison is the thief of love. With the knowledge that we will never have God’s perspective we have the opportunity to replace the act of judging with acts of love. We can even seek His perspective, not on how to judge others, but to see them as he does. He will fill our hearts with love and patience.

One could argue that the most important, most profound, life changing, even world changing doctrine is what Christ taught his disciples at the last supper. And guess what. It is all about love. “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” (John 13:31).

Not having to judge others is an amazing blessing if we accept it. I can rely on a God who is just. Above all, he commanded me to love my neighbor. Having an eternal perspective means the great weight of judging others is off of my shoulders! This perspective brings me hope and peace. Instead of filling our days with ways to judge others, or even comparing ourselves, let us do as he asked. Let’s find love. Let’s find ways to see others and ourselves as God sees us. I know He is ready and waiting to give us a glimpse of the love He has for everyone.

Jamie Cook loves her family, cooking and eating good food, laughing, relaxing, exploring Alaska and can be found cheering on her kids at their sporting events. She is a believer in Christ and His atonement and is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.