The cluttered perspective. Interesting play on words.
When I view something through my lens it looks cluttered, unappealing, distraught, perhaps even mystically miss-aligned. Yet through the viewer’s eye it means everything to them.
It is logically possible that while something is in perfect perspective on the one hand, it is a mesh-mash on the other. Following the shifting paradigm yet?
When we address the poor and needy, what comes to mind almost immediately?
- Children in Africa that have suffered at the hands of injustice, abuse and careless management of resource born out of hierarchical greed
- Homeless people in your community, whether by choice or some misfortune that befell them
- Seniors that have no family to care for them in the last leg of their journey in life
Would it be conceivably possible for the scale to be weighed and to find those that on the outside appear to have it all, yet are of the very same fabric as those we see physically in need, yet they suffer inwardly? This is the cluttered perspective.
Recently I was at a conference where we got to hear from many leaders in the corporate world and those in leadership across a gamut of NGO’s and foundations across the globe. One speaker that struck a chord within me was Tyler Perry. During his discussion Bill Hybels asked him “do you go to church?” such a simple question, yet Tyler’s response was profound. He said “there are times I just want to go to church, sit in the crowd, sing as loud as I want, listen to the sermon, have a good time with all my brothers and sisters…and yet I can’t. In being famous there is no alone time, no freedom to be yourself anymore. People are constantly asking for money, for favors, and what no one understands is that outwardly we may have it all, but inwardly we are just as human as the next person, with the same needs.”
The cluttered perspective. In many respects the categories of need above are one and the same. Just that for a certain demographic the needs are obvious and evident, while for others the same needs are metaphorical, seemingly unattainable. One category of needs can be in the public eye and go unfulfilled, as do the needs of those who are high-profile members of society. I would hazard to say that, for the disenfranchised there remains a hope, daily – that someone will come across their path, and meet their need. Yet for those who are classed as the “Have-it-all” their inner most needs go unfulfilled, no matter where they turn there is emptiness, loneliness and despair that is easily and temporarily drowned by the waves of success.
Imagine if it were possible to ascertain a need based on the inward classification of the heart, rather than through the lens of color, geographical location or position in society? The cluttered perspective would suddenly make sense and be visible to all and afford an incredible paradigm shift from the less obvious to those in plain sight. In the end it all levels out, it’s not cluttered any more but in plain view, the right perspective.
The Jubber Journal 