The business of living life is full of many, many details. There are project reports to write, looming deadlines to meet, and a coffee spill on your desk that demands your attention. There are school forms to fill out and permission slips to sign while finishing your children's lunches as you see their school bus pull around the corner. Our eyeglass prescriptions need to be updated, our garbage needs to be taken out, and our dog needs to be taken to the vet. Details, details, details.
But sometimes we need to step back and free ourselves from the tyranny of details to look at things from a different level.
As I type this, I am riding in a plane from Charlotte, North Carolina to Dallas, Texas, and the pilot is currently taking us over Little Rock, Arkansas. Having been there before, I know the details I am not seeing from my vantage point: street lights, restaurants, cars, people, houses, and busy people going to and fro, all with their own tasks to do and purposes to accomplish.
Yet from here—30,000 feet above all that—I see so much more than those very busy people do. Details on the ground are not currently visible to me, as they would be to someone on the corner of South Arch Street and West Capitol Avenue. I do not see people crossing the street, but I do see a much broader picture, with features not visible to people on the ground. I clearly see the river running through town. I see the full layout of the highways, and the patchwork of land and color that surrounds the area.
Each of these vantage points has its benefits, and each provides a needed perspective. This airborne meditation reminded me of a scripture: "Ponder the path of your feet, and let all your ways be established" (Proverbs 4:26). While walking a path, it is natural to pay attention to the details around us—step over that log, duck under that branch. But it also makes sense to step back sometimes to see a larger picture: Where is this path leading? Is that where I want to go? Is this the best way to get there? Will the destination be worth this journey?
Like stepping back to consider a footpath, or surveying the countryside from the air, we must sometimes consider the bigger picture. Children produce a lot of "busy-ness" in our lives, but what will we accomplish with them in the long run if we keep on our current path? Marriage, too, often demands daily focus on details, but what would we notice staring out a plane window that we could not see from the ground? What do I see ahead for us in five, ten or 20 years? What do I want to see in our marriage in the years ahead? How can we achieve it?
Life is full of details, and there is nothing wrong with that. But every once in a while, we need to step back and consider the bigger picture, climbing above the daily hustle and bustle to get the view from 30,000 feet.
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The above is adapted from one of the many commentaries, discussing vital topics facing our world, available at the www.lcg.org and www.tomorrowsworld.org Web sites.