"Do not call to mind the former
things, Or ponder things of the past. "Behold, I will do something new,
Now it will spring forth; Will you not be aware of it? I will even make a
roadway in the wilderness, Rivers in the desert. Isaiah 43:18-19
If you stand with your arms spread out as far as they go on either side
of you, from the fingertips on one hand all the way around the front of you to
the fingertips on the other hand, it is 180 degrees, a half circle. This is just a small area of life but it is
what goes on right in front of your nose.
What if we never looked beyond the 180 degrees that goes from one side
of our body to the other? What if we
only saw what was right in front of our face and never stretched just a little
further to see what was beyond that 180 degrees?
I heard a police officer once talk about training his officers on the gun
range. Normally on a gun range your
working space is from shoulder to shoulder for safety reasons. Everything happens in front of you – down
range. This officer said that when he
was working one on one with his officers on the range – just the two of them
out there – he would let them shoot 180 degrees but he stood behind them to
make sure that they did not go further than 180 degrees to ensure his own
safety. This was necessary for safety on
the range, but in real life of course officers have to be aware of what is
happening in the entire 360 degrees around their body. Life
happens outside 180 degrees.
Sometimes there are things going on behind you – within the 360 degree
range – that God doesn’t want you to miss.
Living life outside 180 degrees
As Christians, I think we tend to live our lives within 180 degrees. We only pay attention to what we see right in
front of our faces or we only serve within our comfort zone. If we have to turn around, stretch our necks
or reach a little further, forget it!
What might we be missing in ministry by not living beyond 180
degrees? Part of the problem is that we
don’t want to be inconvenienced. We
don’t want to move out of our little space, fingertip to fingertip. Our
Comfort Zone. It is inconvenient
to learn how to do something new that God is calling you to do. It is inconvenient to serve at Center
of Hope once a quarter, you have to sacrifice free time! But the blessing is ten-fold. Be willing to be inconvenienced for
Christ. Be willing to step out of
your comfort zone, out of the 180 degrees right in front of you.
We can get tunnel vision and get so focused on where we are going and
what we want to do it is easy to miss the opportunities for ministry and
blessing that are alongside us. We
sometimes only see what is in our peripheral vision. What does God have waiting for us if we just
reach a little further? What blessing
are you missing by just living fingertip to fingertip?
Turn around, look behind you, stretch your neck, stick your neck out
there! This is not the gun range! You are not going to get shot, you are going
to get blessed! You may be missing great
blessings by not trusting, by not being willing to look beyond your peripheral
vision, by not being willing to step outside your comfort zone, outside 180 degrees.
Scripture to Claim:
But you watch in all things, endure
afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fully carry out your ministry. 2Timothy 4:5
Submitted By Lara Cook
