I had the privilege of facilitating some high ropes and low course initiatives for a group from Andrews University last week.  The picture above is from one of my favorite low course initiatives that I facilitate.  I’m not super creative so I simply call it the “Golf Ball Transport”.  🙂  The object is to move a regular golf ball about 20 feet from one over-sized golf tee to another using a small metal ring with ten 12 foot strings attached to it.

While it may not sound all that complicated, particularly if you’ve never tried it, this is a great activity for learning the importance of perspective in our communication and actions.  There are few rules to the activity other than each participant must maintain a hold only on the very end of a string and if the ball falls off the ring and hits the ground the entire activity must start over.

Communicating movement based on your perspective isn’t all that helpful when everyone else sees it just a little bit differently.  In this activity, a simple request for everyone to move left simply results in the entire group moving in a circle because each person’s left is in a different direction relative to the ball and tee.  Eventually groups realize that they need to communicate from a common reference point and that their perspective may not give a full and clear picture of where things really are.

How often in life do we insist that people need to move in a certain way because from our perspective that is what makes the most sense to get them where they ought to be.  Unfortunately, we rarely live in the complete center of the will of God where our perspective is actually the same perspective God has.  We must learn to evaluate our movement and actions based on the perspective of God.  It is only after we draw near to that common reference point of God’s will that we can begin to give helpful direction to lead a life that honors God.

I pray that you and I would gain a Godly perspective on our own life first, and then on the lives of those around us as we seek to serve and honor a God that desires all to come into a saving relationship with Him through His Son, Jesus.