From the Home Place

October 4, 2025

This is going to be interesting: Yesterday the temperature hit 83 degrees for a high, tomorrow the high is predicted to be 49, a change of 34 degrees. Big temperature swings are not all that uncommon in Wyoming, but seldom are they all that much fun either.

According to the stats, the temperature of the church was way higher thirty years ago, and since Covid, it has been quite chilly. Now with recent events, we are seeing another upward swing of people coming back to churches. I find it interesting that whatever the temperature of the nation seems to be with current events, the temperature of the church seems to follow it, hot or cold.

It has always been said that when things are going well and life is easy, church attendance drops. However, it is during the most difficult of conditions within the nation, church attendance rises. This would tend to indicate that church involvement is more of an emotional issue than it is a matter of conviction.

It was recently reported that more Americans are “dissatisfied with life” than since the Viet Nam War, and as such, many people are once again asking questions about religion and faith. The problem is that most of those who are asking such questions are find their answers on the internet instead of within the church. In another words, they are allowing the world to influence their decisions instead of finding their answers within the pages of the Bible.

A person’s personal perspective is the lens through which they look at life. That perspective is influenced by where, when and how a person grows up. Family life, education, location, situations within a person’s community and country all develop a person’s perspective.

Fact: the older I get, the more glasses have become my friend. Also, the older I get, the more often I have to increase the magnification of those glasses. Said another way, I have had to change the lenses of my glasses, which changes the way I see the world around me. Thus, physically, I have had to change my perspective of how I see life.

Living causes us to also change our perspective emotionally. If a person cannot change their emotional perspective, that person will usually become stuck under the control of past events of life. Thus, that person will see themself as a victim of life. As such, their out of focus life is seen as the fault of someone or something in their past, thus keeping them from coping with what is taking place in their life today.

Remedy: To change my present understanding of life, I have to change the perspective through which I view life; and significant change is seldom comfortable. Because changing my perspective is difficult and usually demanding, we will all tend to stay stuck in our old way of understanding life.

I am in a stage of life where I am often told, “Getting old is not for sissies.” Well, I would say, “Growing in Christ is not for sissies.” Why, because the more I read and understand my Bible, the more I see the need to make changes within my life and how I see life. As I develop a biblical world view – I will realize that I must change my perspective from how, when and where I was raised, to that of a person who is growing in learning to walk with God, in the newness of life!

Summary: “If you want to grow spiritually, which will change how you live emotionally and physically, then you must change your perspective to one who looks at life through the lens of the Bible.” The amazing thing is, God will accept anyone right where they are in their personal perspective today, but He has no intention of leaving us there tomorrow. Could it be that developing a biblical perspective is how He gets me ready for Heaven?

Changing my perspective with you, Neal