A small town chamber of commerce invited a speaker for its annual dinner. The community’s economy was bad and people were discouraged. They wanted this motivational speaker to give them a boost.
During her presentation, the speaker took a large piece of white paper and made a small black dot at the center. Then she held the paper up and asked the audience what they saw.
"I see a black dot."
"Okay, what else?"
Others said: "A black dot."
"Don’t you see anything else?"
A resounding "No!" came from the audience.
"What about the sheet of paper?"
Then she added this:
"We tend to overlook and take for granted many wonderful things we have or happen around us, focusing our attention on small, dot-like failures and disappointments. The problems we have are usually like the black dot on the paper: small and insignificant if we can widen our horizon and look at the whole picture."
– Author Unknown
As Paul followed Jesus in this world, he suffered a lot, but instead of focusing on black dots, he saw them against the backdrop of God’s love, knowing God would use those dots for eternal purposes.
We do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. – 2 Corinthians 4:16-18
Lord, help me keep the dots in perspective, focusing on you.
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