Same circumstances but very different reactions. What's the difference? Some of it may be background or experience. Bill Hybels (founding pastor of Willow Creek Community Church) was a teenager when his dad sent him across Lake Michigan on a sail boat and around the world on a plane--both times alone. Those sorts of leadership challenges tend to build confidence as challenges come our way.
Other people who were not given those opportunities--or pushed to pursue them--may respond to life's circumstances with far greater caution.
Other factors come into play, such as our basic emotional DNA. Some of us are risk-takers and have a higher threshold for the unknown. Others of us applaud the risk-takers as we honker down in our chairs and the remote--safe in the comfort of the safe and predictable.
I suspect I've been a bit of both in my life. Sometimes opportunities feel like unwelcome challenges and other times challenges feel like huge, God-sized opportunities. Same circumstance--different reaction.
So what's the difference? Perspective. If my eyes are on me (i.e. my abilities, resources, etc) then life's circumstances take on the feel of an overwhelming challenge. On the other hand, if my eyes are on God--the God who is infinitely good and infinitely wise and infinitely loving and infinitely resourceful, then the same set of circumstances produces in me a sense of excitement--an opportunity for God to do something extraordinary in and through me--an ordinary person.
Read 1 Samuel 17. It is the familiar story of David and his battle with Goliath. While the armies of Israel shook in their sandals, saying "He's too big!" David looked at the same guy, the same threat, the same circumstances and said, "He's so big...I can't miss!!!"
What was the difference? PERSPECTIVE. When I am feeling overwhelmed perhaps the problem is not that the giants in my life are too big but that my vision of God is too small.
"With God ALL things are possible." (Jesus, Matthew 19:26)
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