A Crooked Watch

This morning I had the pleasure of sharing an early morning meal with an old friend. It was so early in fact, that the sun wasn't even up. Thankfully, my watches hands glow in the dark. I was fairly confident I had plenty of time to get dressed and out the door for my 6:30 appointment. However, I had a bit of a freak out moment right before I left. I checked my watch and it read 7:00! How had an entire hour passed while I tied my shoes?

The problem wasn't the time, but the way I was holding my watch. The hands looked like 7:00, but it was actually 5:55, which looks remarkably like 7:00 when you only see the hands and a few dots for the hours. Once I properly aligned my wrist, everything was right with the world. I was able to show up early for breakfast and enjoyed a great time catching up with a long time brother in Christ.

Perspective is so important in life. I find myself getting overly concerned with things when I'm not lined up properly. Just as my wrist needed to be properly aligned to see the time correctly, my life needs to be aligned with Scripture to have a proper view of everything.

Without Scripture as my foundation, everything seems to become scary. Politics become overwhelming if I forget who is the true King. Death becomes frightening if I forget what happens after this life. Family ties can become stressful if I forget the true tie that binds me to my family in Christ. Even sports can be depressing if I focus on the temporal and forget the big picture.

It constantly amazes me how skewed my perspective can get with such a small adjustment one way or the other. This morning, it wouldn't have changed when I arrived for breakfast, just how stressed out I would've been when I got there.