A Point Of View From A Country Road
I give you a viewpoint and a point of view from a country road. You may be thinking they are the same thing. They kind of are, sometimes. There are many things to like about this featured image—for instance, the blue sky and white clouds, the panoramic view with live oaks near the foreground, a pointed hill and flat-top mesas in the background. Of course, there is water, cattle, and grassland, too. From this country road, the view uplifts my soul. In many ways, this country road provides a great view. It even has a bird on a wire! The wire, the tank (pond), and a building on the far right are the only man-made things in the picture. God created everything else!
There was also something troubling about it for me. While on this 4th of July adventure, driving around for half a day to see as many hills and vistas as I could, I saw something that didn’t make sense. After studying the map, the long, flat mesa in the center of the picture didn’t look to be in the right place relative to the little pointed hill next to it. This troubling issue stemmed from the fact that I was not exactly where I thought I was and that I had incorrectly remembered the location of the two hills. So, although this location is a great viewpoint, my point of view (opinion) was somewhat suspect.
Take Me Home
Indeed, God had placed the terrain exactly where He wanted it. Not only that, but the Almighty’s creation screams His Glory. A song by John Denver is popular again among World Cup fans. (Here’s a video explaining the phenomenon) The title of the song is “Take Me Home, Country Roads”. As the video explains rhetorically, don’t we all want to go “home”, a place where we feel like we belong? That, my friend, is what I’d call a point of view most of us would agree with. And with that said, this July 4th car ride reminded me of where I came from, of my home and where I belong, for I am a child of the prairie.
A movie and a point of view
Additionally, my son and I celebrated the 4th by going to see Young Washington. It is a fantastic movie. I liked it so much that I have seen it three times so far. I wish I could memorize every line in the movie. One particularly poignant scene, featuring actress Mary-Louise Parker as Mary Washington and William Franklin-Miller as a young George Washington, reads as follows.
Mary Washington speaking to her son, George, after he returned from defeat at Fort Necessity.
When your father died, there were accounts I could not read, acres I could not plow. But I learned, as women do, to keep a tally with one hand and a prayer with the other. I hardened because the wind here is hard. It put iron in my voice. I was hard on you, George. I see you learned to be hard on yourself; that was my sin.
As a matter of fact, I must interject that Mary’s sin is similar to my sin with at least two of my three children. I mistakenly thought a drill sergeant technique would be the best way to raise them. I was too hard on them. Mary’s ordeal of taking over a farm operation and providing for her children is similar to the ordeal my mother went through when my father died. Mary’s husband died at 49, My father died the day before his 34th birthday.
By the way, George was 10 or 11 when his father died. I was 9 when my dad died. His father was a member of the planter class. My father was a farmer/rancher and leased 600 acres of prairie land. I relate to his anger and his drive to fit in and his desire improve his station. Or to put it in Take Me Home Country Roads vernacular, George and I just wanted to find our place where we felt like we belonged.
(Back to the movie scene, I promise this all ties together.)
George replies:
You said Providence placed me here. Why? For me to fail?
Mary answers:
Perhaps. Failure is the tutor sent by God. If you don’t learn from it, you fail twice. If you do learn from it, you’ve earned wisdom. So, what did it tell you?
George answers:
To go back. But I’m afraid of making the same mistakes.
Mary:
War is not the path I would choose for you. But (she exhales) on your feet, son. If you must return to soldiering, go ( a long pause) as God’s servant. Do it with your whole heart. Find your path. Make it yours. Make it straight and prove them wrong because even a pawn can take the king.
As loud as God’s creation
All things considered, the advice given by Mary to George is sound!
It is sound advice for all of us! (no matter our chosen profession)
It is a point of view that speaks to me as loud as God’s creation did when I stopped to take this picture!
Mary’s perspective aligns well with God’s perspective! Don’t you agree that these versus correlate well with Mary’s advice to George?
- 2 Corinthians 4:18: “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal”
- Romans 8:18: “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”
- Colossians 3:2: “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things”.
- Proverbs 3:5-6: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”
- Romans 12:2: “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
Only by viewing life from God’s perspective (as much as it is possible) can we truly find a place where we truly belong.