Lynn Jones: The need for the right perspective in life
By Lynn Jones
This Sunday, July 27, Ichiro Suzuki, C. C. Sabathia, and Billy Wagner will be inducted into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame. They will be joined by two “Classic Baseball Era” electees, Dave Parker and Dick Allen. Suzuki and Sabathia both retired in 2019, and Wagner retired in 2010. Major league baseball has a rule that a player must be retired at least five years before he can be considered for induction into the Hall of Fame.
Now, what’s going on here? Why don’t they just vote on a guy as soon as his career is over? Well, experience has shown that some time ought to be allowed to pass before evaluating a player’s career. Sometimes in the publicity and emotion that attends a player’s retirement, it is hard to evaluate the player and his career. The passage of time offers greater perspective.
I have noticed that the same principle is often seen in the selection of Nobel Prize winners each year. Often the prize winners are recognized for pioneering breakthroughs that they made in their fields years before. It is only now from the perspective of time that the true impact of their discoveries can be seen.
Seeing things in their correct perspective is always a challenge. Sometimes we mistake mole hills for mountains and mountains for molehills. We are always struggling for perspective. We tend to overreact to things. If you treat every situation as a life and death matter, you’ll die a lot. It’s been noted that there is nothing so small that it can’t be blown out of proportion. If you can learn anything from Hall of Fame votes and the awarding of Nobel Prizes, it is that you ought to give yourself a little time before arriving at final conclusions about the importance of a matter.
This is also an issue in our faith. Jesus told the religious leaders of His day that they had completely lost their perspective. He said, “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat from what you are drinking but swallow a camel” (Matt. 23:23-24).
Of course that was not just their problem. It is also our problem. We are often very ardent in voicing our opinions about things, but Jesus said the greatest commandment of all is to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and the second greatest commandment is like it. We are to love our neighbors as much as we love ourselves. What we do is more important than what we say. May God help us maintain our perspective!
Lynn Jones is a retired pastor who lives in Oxford. He does supply preaching for churches in his area and often serves as an interim pastor. Jones is also an author, has written two books and writes a weekly newspaper column. He may be contacted at: kljones45@yahoo.com.
