Wherever we go, I tend to take my trusty camera with me.  Or at the very least, I’m not afraid to whip out my phone and use that camera instead.  Now that my daughters are no longer babies and not so apt to pose or allow pictures without a fuss, I find myself looking more and more at the world around me and enjoying the view.

Looking outside, rather than being so much in my head.

And as I look at the scenery, the majesty which God has created, it often takes my breath away.  And it causes me to think on God Almighty.  On the sacrifice Jesus made on my behalf.

How do I view the abundant life I’ve been given?

So often, when a difficult season presents itself, we can hyper-focus on the immediacy of that situation.  Of the needs it presents.  How it makes us feel.  And that can cause us to spiral to a place we were never meant to be.  I know that has so often been true for me.

Someone says something to you and you being to inspect the ways it has wounded you.  And you begin to assign intentions and motives that someone never said.  And the more we focus on that, the more hurt we feel.  And we think about what we could have said.  And what we shoudl have said.

ANd so rarely are those things what Jesus would like us to say.  *sigh*

In those moments, I have to reign myself in.  In the difficult times.  Both the small ones and the big ones.  ANd I have to decide.  Who is God *really* in my life.  What’s the big picture?

Are these trials bigger than God?  When we hyper-focus, it sure seems like it.  But if I can step back and really set my eyes on the God of the universe, suddenly the view changes.  Oh, the situation didn’t change, but my view certainly does.  Take out the hurt.  Take out the emotion.  Stop assigning blame and motive and value things of this world simply don’t have.

Take a look at the view.  Who is God to me?

My dear Abba, who tends my hurts.

Sweet refuge in the middle of life’s storms.

Like no one I’ve ever known.

Marvelous mystery, He is.  And I am so glad.  Because that’s a God I can invest in.

This post is written in conjunction with the 31 Days Writing Challenge and linked up with Kate Motaung’s Five Minute Friday crew here and Nester Smith’s friends here.