Would You Like Some Context With That?

Hey there.

Well, I must say, naming one of my blog categories as ‘lesson learned’ has been entirely appropriate. I’ve learned some important things this past week.

It’s crazy how much an extra perspective can change the game, and change a course of action, and I am grateful for some advice that was given to me about a week ago, because things could have turned into one big old ugly mess.

Except, it kind of already did.

Enter damage control.

Hopefully it’s not as bad as I think it is, but this little ordeal had me thinking more and more of how grateful I am for some other things, too:

Perspective, and its dear friend, context.

You see, perspective and context are both wallflower friends until the end. They are always standing near the outskirts, often left out of groups, not usually invited to the party until the very last minute, and only because logic pipes in on their behalf every now and again.

So, I have become quite fond of these two in the last week, for more than the obvious reason that I was always quite the left-out loner too 😛

You see, I had a concern that I was only seeing from one side. I didn’t even think there could be another side.

But you see, dear reader, there is always another side. Maybe even more than one.

And POP, I had a revelation., and I didn’t want to go through with what I had initially wanted to do.
I’m still holding onto some aspect of my initial concern, but I now see things a whole lot differently.

So this reminds me of something else:

You can’t always get what you waaAaant *cue Mick Jagger, yet agaaAaain*

I hope you sang that in your head the way I tried to type it. Yeah, I know I’m lame but whatever.

Okay, okay focus. So yes, I may have had the right intentions about this issue, but doing what I had planned to do does not make it the right thing to do, especially when thinking on behalf of the others involved. This reminds me of what I heard someone once say (pardon my paraphrase):

You can do good things, but that does not make those things the right things.

And a follow up question: Are you doing the right things?

So hold on there, Jethro. How do you know when you’re doing the right thing? Can the right thing also be the good thing?

Hi there, perspective.
There are TONS of “good things” I want to do, but whether or not they are the right things for me to do is another matter.

So back to the initial question: How do you know?

I can only give the answer for what I’ve been striving to do:

I pray about it. The only right thing I care about doing is what is right in God’s eyes.
I seek answers in prayer, in reading God’s word or other inspired writings, and talking to other like-minded people. Who knows, those good things could very well be the right things, too.

To bring this full circle, here are my points:

• The good thing might only be good in one aspect, and is not always the right thing.
• The right thing is what matters.
• Perspective and context are smart little fellows and should never be left out of anything, ever.

So I’ll take a breath, relax, and take some time to seek advice before going down a road that only I see is paved in gold.

❤