thanks to you - Baptist Bible Tribune

The
Baseline of Life
By Steve Van Winkle
I
’ve been watching the news more
lately. You probably have too. If we
compare notes, we’d probably have
the same impressions. There’s less
work, more uncertainty, and a general
feeling of foreboding about 2009.
Watching all the handwringing over
the economy, it seems this New Year is
beginning with something no other has
in recent memory: two strikes.
I have heard and seen a lot of
people take some stock of what’s going
on. Many people have learned lessons
and many more are searching for some.
It’s not always easy to maintain perspective
when the economy seems to be
collapsing, especially considering that
for nearly 15 years or so the culture
has blared at us that the bottom line
is the standard by which we should be
reviewing our lives.
I think, however, that Christians
should bear in mind a baseline the
world never factors.
That dawned on me last Thanksgiving.
My wife, Cheryl, and I were
...it seems this New Year is beginning
with something no other has in
recent memory: two strikes.
with a church member whose family
owns one of the oldest ranches in Montana.
He invited us up to hunt elk; my
usual luck prevailed as we only saw a
great big herd of nothing.
But we were roaming up on a high
plateau that overlooked the entire
valley and brought us eye level with
some of the purple mountains’ majesty
hundreds of miles away. Bouncing over
ruts (I would be lying if I called them
roads), we traveled an old stagecoach
trail, complete with a genuine, leftover,
weathered-gray signpost along the
route, through a high meadow. Along
the way, we drifted through old homesteads
littering the choice ground now
dusted with snow under an obscenely
blue sky, while the wind was pushing
over the sage and the tops of the pines.
Something occurred to me up
there. I could see more mountain peaks
above me. They were close by, and the
valley was “out there,” far beneath my
elevated view. I was high up, and yet, I
was in a kind of valley.
I thought if I didn't know better, if
I hadn't kept track of how far up I had
traveled, I would look at this plateau
and think it was a valley. I was looking
around and realized how my perspective
on life had been altered.
I have whined and complained this
past year. I have felt the depths and the
despondency. I have learned to distrust
myself, and I re-learned lessons good
12 Baptist Bible Tribune [ January 2009 ]