Pastor Craig Groeschel is a firm believer that reframing your perspective on life can change everything. Here’s an excerpt from his book, Hope in the Dark: Believing God Is Good When Life Is Not. Used by permission from Zondervan.
This journey of faith is easier said than done, I know. And so often, as we’ve seen, it’s a matter of perspective. Just to emphasize this point, I have a little poem that I think will help you. These verses were written by a young man from our church named Kyle McCarty, when he was only fifteen.
Kyle’s Poem
God doesn’t love me
You can’t force me to believe
God is good
This is the One Truth in life
This world is a product of chance
How can I believe that
God will use my life
I know with certainty that
God has left me
Never again will I say that
Christ is risen from the dead
I know now more than ever in my life that
Man can save himself
We must realize that it is ignorant to think
God answers prayers
Christians declare that
Without God this world would fall into darkness
This world can and will meet my needs
It is a lie to say that
God has always been there for me
I now realize that
No matter what I do
The Truth is
He doesn’t love me
How can I presume that
God is good
Okay, now before you think I’ve lost my mind or abandoned everything I’ve told you up to this point, I’m going to ask that you read this poem one more time. Only this time, as you read it, I’d like to ask you to make one slight change: read it backward.
Begin at the last line and read backward to the first line. Take your time. I’ll wait here.
Wow, now that makes quite a difference, doesn’t it?
So much of what we go through works just like this poem.
Change your perspective on life with this Bible Plan.
All we can see is what’s right in front of us. We can’t tell why God would allow such suffering and injustice in our lives or in the world around us.
But with time, with patience, with perspective, we begin to see things differently. We realize, usually in hindsight, that God has brought something amazing and totally unexpected out of the ashes of our loss, grief, and heartache.
Not least of which is a stronger faith, born out of a deeper love for him.
Habakkuk knew that our perspective changes, even while God’s remains the same.
Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lᴏʀᴅ, I will be joyful in God my Savior. Habakkuk 3:17–18 NIV
Yet I will rejoice in the Lord. No matter what.