Perspective

Max Lucado’s excellent book, “Great Day Every Day,” tells an interesting story about a conference sponsored a few years ago by the organization, Women of Faith, that had a big problem. The problem was that at one of their conferences, 150 more ladies registered than the facility could accommodate. The group’s leaders thought the problem was solved when the arena staff suggested setting up narrower chairs, which would allow for the extra seats needed.

Though the narrower chairs provided enough seating for the extra women, the smaller chairs created an entirely new problem. There may have been a seat for each lady, but none were comfortable, and complaints mushroomed. Instead of being an uplifting conference, the event was marked by negativity and frustration as participants grew increasingly uncomfortable.

The leaders faced the challenge of getting the conference back on track. The group’s president, Mary Graham, asked one of their featured speakers, Joni Eareckson Tada, to attempt to calm the crowd. She was the ideal speaker to help attendees adjust their attitudes because Ms. Tada has been confined to a wheelchair for her entire adult life. She told the crowd, “I understand some of you don’t like the chair in which you are sitting; neither do I. But I have about a thousand handicapped friends who would gladly trade places with you…” Silence fell across the arena, and complaints stopped immediately.

Joni was the perfect speaker to challenge the ladies. Her situation was a powerful reminder that the temporary discomfort of those attending the Women of Faith Conference was minor compared to what those with life-changing handicaps experience each day.

Like Joni, the Apostle Paul is the perfect person to challenge our occasional negativity. Despite frequently being persecuted and ultimately martyred for his faith, Paul consistently maintained a positive attitude and wrote this inspirational challenge: “Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, NLT)

It was not that the famous apostle ignored life’s challenges; a look at Paul’s complete writings in the New Testament reveals that, despite maintaining a consistently positive attitude, he was also a realist. His optimistic perspective was rooted in a refusal to lose sight of the fact that today’s problems are not permanent. When we let life’s temporary problems steal our hope, our current challenges seem bigger than they are, and we lose sight of our future hope, in which God makes everything right forever.