Wednesday, June 25, 2014
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I have a pastor friend who lives in a beautiful spot in the country. And he sees things there that I couldn't see where I lived for many years in an urban area. Like the bird life there was pretty much limited to sparrows, and there were a few rowdy crows, an occasional robin or blue jay. Oh, yeah, and then the parrot in our kitchen. But my friend, he was able to see and still is, all of those things with one of the classiest birds around-the hummingbird. You've seen them probably doing their amazing hovering thing and flying from one flower to the next. And they're always attracted to the most beautiful things in the yard. Now, my friend also gets to see one of the un-classiest birds around too-the buzzard. I mean, here's this amazing contrast. You've got the hummingbird and the buzzard flying over the same ground. But the hummingbird sees the meadow; the buzzard sees the carnage.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Buzzard Vision."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from the book of Lamentations, written by the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah, and really written out of a broken heart. His country is devastated, his personal life is devastated, and he talks about his feelings in chapter 3, verses 19-20. He says, "I remember my affliction and my wandering. I remember the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them. And my soul is downcast within me." We're talking about a depressed prophet here. And he's thinking about all of the negatives and the pain and the failures. Folks, that's buzzard vision! Looking at the ugly, looking at what's dying, or looking at what's dead.
But then he turns a corner in verse 21. He says this: "Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope." He's going from downcast to hope. What's making the difference? "Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, 'The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for Him.'"
What a change here! Jeremiah starts looking at the hope factors instead of the hurt factors. Now, has the situation changed? No. But his focus is about to, because he talks first of all about the margin of difference when times are tough. He says, "Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed." He is suddenly deciding to focus on the Lord's great love.
Then he talks about the Lord's compassions that are new every morning. Those compassions, I think, are like specific, customized actions of love from God that are in each 24-hour period of time. And you'll see them if you'll look for "God sightings" every day. They're God's little interventions; big interventions. And Jeremiah has decided to look at those instead. And because they're new every morning, God never misses a day. There's always some to see. He always supplies us with mercies for what this day will need. "Great is Your faithfulness" he says.
It's like that suffering saint one time said, "Jesus is enough." Now, he has just moved from buzzard vision, focusing on the carnage, to hummingbird vision, focusing on the beautiful - the evidences of God's love. Are you doing that? Maybe you've been dwelling on the pain, you've been kind of falling into the identity of being a victim. Maybe the monster of self-pity is consuming you. You've been focusing on your failures and building this wave of self-doubt and paralysis.
It's only Satan who focuses on the past, because it can't be changed. God points to the future that has yet to be written. Aren't you tired of just seeing the carnage, the ugly, the hurting, the negative? Why don't you choose to focus on what you can thank God for each morning? Look for His love. Review His interventions and His blessings and you'll feel wind start to rise under your wings instead of weights growing on them pulling you down. It's a daily, hourly choice. You decide what you want to focus on as you fly over today's ground.
And don't be a buzzard. Go for hummingbird vision. Look for the beauty. "His compassions never fail. Great is His faithfulness."