A Different Perspective // How to Live an Extraordinary Life, Pt 16

A Different Perspective Official Podcast

It’s all too easy in life to get stuck in a rut. In what we say, in what we do … and actually also in what we think. And when someone challenges those things – often times we defend our actions, our words and our thoughts. But the sort of life we live, depends a lot on our ability to see things from a different perspective.

Hey, it’s easy to find ourselves in a rut – same old, same old, day after day, week after week, month after month. You know what they say, "a rut is just a coffin with the ends kicked out of it". It’s like a tunnel, a trench, and it seems that we’re constantly locked into … well … just the same. And whilst most of us can easily identify the ruts we’re in – in our circumstances; in our relationships; things that seem to be headed nowhere; the job that sometimes seems to be headed nowhere; the dull routine of life that once used to excite us but now it’s just downright boring – you see we all can identify with this notion of the rut, I wonder how many of us realise how our thoughts and attitudes are also in a rut.

Now all of a sudden a few of us might start getting a bit uncomfortable because the moment someone comes along and challenges our attitudes we become all defensive. We treasure our attitudes dearly. It’s as though we’ve believed that we’re entitled somehow to see the world the way we see it even if our attitudes themselves are like a straight jacket constricting our lives, holding us back from being all we can be, and doing all we can do.

This week again on the program we’re taking a look at ‘How to Lead an Extraordinary Life’ simply by following Jesus around the dusty highways and byways of 1st Century Israel and seeing what He did, how He lived, what He said. And today importantly how He thought.

Have you ever met someone who’s critical and judgemental? Perhaps you’ve worked with someone like that or you’re married to someone like that. It’s simply not a lot of fun being around critical and judgemental people. They don’t bring out the best in us, do they? Most of us respond really to encouragement but criticism not so much. Of course sometimes we need criticism. Sometimes we need a wakeup call.

But you know what I really hate? It’s when someone who you is can see has so many faults of their own is the one who criticises me. There’s a name for that, it’s called hypocrisy. And when that person happens to be in a position of power over us it can make our lives incredibly miserable.

But imagine now that you or I are the critical hypocrites in someone else’s life. Imagine for a moment that we have power over someone else and all that we do is that we criticise them. Let me ask you this then. Is that any way to live an extraordinary life? When the people who are closest to us come to our funeral and they’re asked to speak about the impact that we’ve had on their lives, would they be saying the sorts of things we’d hope that they would say? Have a listen to how Jesus tackled this very issue. He confronts it head on:

Do not judge so that you may not be judged. For with the judgement that you make you will be judged and with the measure that you give will be the measure that you get. Why is it that you see the speck in your neighbour’s eye but you don’t see the log in your own. Or how can you say to your neighbour. ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye’, while there’s a log in your own eye. You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye and then you’ll be able to see clearly enough to take the speck out of your neighbour’s eye. (Matthew 7:1-5)

Jesus doesn’t mince His words, does He? He calls the spade a spade. And the powerful thing about this piece of wisdom that He shared with His followers and that I guess that what He’s sharing with you and me today is that He’s prepared to take a look at things from a completely different perspective.

Imagine for a moment that you and I have a critical and judgemental approach to other people, and frankly, at some point we all do, some more than others. Now all of a sudden, Jesus has something confronting to say to you and me about our bad attitudes, about our bad thinking, about our bad approach to relationships. Very directly. If you think about one relationship in your life where perhaps you’re being over-critical, over-judgemental, this piece of wisdom starts to bite doesn’t it? It’s starts to make us squirm because it’s challenging our attitude; it’s challenging an entrenched way of thinking and an entrenched way of behaving. And after all, isn’t that what a rut is in your life?

Some people have very few close valuable friendships because of this very thing. Because they’re always criticising, nitpicking. And the fruit of that, the result of that is that it robs them of the tender, intimate friendships and relationships they could be having. No one wants to be close to someone who always criticises them do they? I don’t, you don’t. And if we’re guilty of being the hypocritical, complaining, nitpicking party who’s always criticising other people then looking at that fault of ours is a powerful start to dealing with the problem.

And that’s the thing that I really want to focus on today. When someone comes to you with a different perspective on something are you threatened or are you open to learn. Most people are threatened. Most people get their hackles up and they defend their position as indefensible as it may be. And as a result they spend the rest of their lives living in a rut, in this case, missing out on some wonderful relationships.

Perhaps you’ve heard me talk about this man before. He’s a man called Heikki Malmberg. He comes originally from Finland. When I was a young army officer I worked under Heikki in the I.T. department of the army’s personnel agency. Now, Heikki has one of the most incredible minds. He’s sharp, brilliant in every way. And because He’s so smart you have to have your arguments sorted out and stacked up if you’re going to get him to change his mind on something. But the moment he realizes that you have an idea that’s better than his, he’ll drop his own idea like a hot potato.

I’m convinced that that’s the very reason that Heikki is one of the smartest people I know because he’s prepared to see things from a different perspective. Yes, he’s discerning, sure he’s not easily led or swayed or deceived but when someone else is right and he’s wrong he’ll grab onto their "right" and drop his "wrong" faster than you can say Heikki Malmberg. Another way of saying it is that he has a teachable heart.

Put yourself in the shoes of one of those people who were listening to Jesus talk about this tendency we all have of being over-critical. You have two choices. One is to open your heart and listen to Jesus and say to yourself, "Yes, you know what, He’s right. I need to do something about this in my life". The other choice is to be threatened by this confronting teaching, to hang onto your own wrong attitudes and wrong behaviours, to keep criticising people for the rest of your life.

So which one of those two choices leads to the better life? Which one is going to give you the most extraordinary life? Pretty obvious isn’t it? So why is then, when someone like Jesus comes along and gives us two choices – one a better choice, and one a worse choice – that you and I are so prone to take the worse choice, the one that will ruin our lives? Because we’re in a rut in our thoughts and our deeds and we’ll defend that rut to the death.

Not much of a way of living life is it? Certainly no way to live an extraordinary life. So there you have it. One of the characteristics of Jesus that lead Him to lead an extraordinary life was the ability to see things and accept things from a different perspective. So, question: What sort of life will you lead, an ordinary one or an extraordinary one?