The Sunset

One summer’s evening, ten friends sat watching the sun set over the calm blue ocean. For six of the friends the sunset was the most beautiful thing they had seen – they just enjoyed the fading of the yellows into reds, oranges and finally into the purples, pinks and blues of dusk. They marvelled at the incomparable magnitude of the vast expanse of water, and the seagulls that hung above it, unshaken by the ocean’s devouring stature. They sat for hours just enjoying it.
The other four people were not that impressed by the sunset. They didn’t find anything particularly beautiful or enticing about it.

Has the sunset failed the other four people?
I think in this simplified scenario it is easy to see that we cannot say that the sunset is in any way ‘guilty’ of not delivering on its responsibility to provide that good feeling one expects when watching the sunset. The sunset is what it is; it is absolute and does not show itself differently to individual persons. Rather the reason some people see its beauty and others don’t, is because of the way those people perceive the sunset. In other words what eyes do they see it through? It is the state of mind and spirit of each person that allows them to have either a positive or negative experience of the sunset.

If the sunset does not hold any power over the people to find enjoyment in it, then surely the same should apply to everything in life.

We all complain – about our jobs, about our friends, our financial situation, but have we ever stopped to think that the magnitude of our problems could be due to our perception of those problems and not necessarily the problems themselves? If it is due to our perception, then surely we have the power to choose how we see those problems.
We can either see them as challenges that God will use to the good of those who love Him, or we can see them as afflictions that bring pain to our lives.

So how do I look at the proverbial sunset and see its beauty? How can I change my perception so that I can enjoy what I see? The answer begins and ends in Jesus taking first place in your life. When Jesus is number one, we see the world through His eyes and realise that the power lies in His presence in us and not in the things of the world.

The challenge is to look at our own lives and see if there are things that we don’t appreciate and enjoy, things that frustrate us and things in which we cannot see the good. We need to stop blaming the other person and the situation, look into ourselves and see how God wants us to change our perspective of what is happening.

You can’t see the good in a situation, until you see the God in it.

Be blessed, make music, live with passion
NS