The Dagobah Perspective

I love Star Wars.  Yes, even the prequel trilogy.  But that's a different post for a different blog.

One of my favorite scenes in the original trilogy happens in Return of the Jedi.  (Warning, possible spoiler alert if you haven't seen them.)  Luke is in the middle of a swamp on a planet named Dagobah.  His teacher has just died and he is searching for answers.  It's then, that a translucent carbuncle of his previous teacher, Obi-wan Kenobi, arrives and explains somethings to him:

    Luke: Ben! Why didn't you tell me? You told me that Darth Vader betrayed and murdered my father.
 
    Obi-Wan: Your father... was seduced by the Dark Side of the Force. He ceased to be Anakin
        Skywalker and "became" Darth Vader. When that happened, the good man who was your father
        was destroyed. So what I told you was true... from a certain point of view.

    Luke: A certain point of view?

    Obi-Wan: Luke, you're going to find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own
        point of view...

 Now, don't get all caught up in words like Dark Side, Force, and Skywalker.  The concept we're looking at here is perspective.  Let me ask you a question:

Can truth be dependent upon your perspective?

I don't want to get into a discussion of semantics or existentialism here, but let's go to a simple example.  You and I are standing next to each other in the woods.  You're standing behind a tree.  I am not.  I tell you there is a bear running straight toward us.  You tell me, there isn't.  The only way I can convince you this is a truth (before the bear reaches us) is to somehow get you to move from behind the tree and see the bear.

What bear?

Let's put this in a different context.


You have a friend that is addicted to porn, drinks like a fish every night, and gambles whatever money they have left over.  They need to hear the good news, you want to share the love of Jesus with them, but they are confident they want nothing to do with him, or church.

Or maybe you know someone who volunteers at a soup kitchen three nights a week.  They don't do drugs, they are responsible with their money.  They are also devoted and faithful to their family, and help their neighbors out regularly.  They've heard the typical "Christian" spiel.  And are not interested.

What does the first friend need from Jesus?

Ok change your perspective and look through their eyes.  They are having fun.  Or at least think they are.  It's their money, their body, they can do what they want with it.

How about the second friend?  See it from their eyes.  Church has nothing to offer them.  They are as the expression goes, "good people."


So, what do we do about this?  How do we change their perspective.  How do we get them to see what we see?  Well, I don't have a solid answer for you.  My response is, change your perspective.

Leave your comfort zone.  See the world through their eyes, or at least closer to their perspective.  Now, I'm not suggesting that anyone start drinking, gambling or doing other things of that nature to better understand a friend.  Open up to them.  Hear what they are really saying when they talk.

For Luke, Darth Vader was the man who murdered his father Anakin.  For Obi-wan, Vader was always the man who had been Anakin.  But Luke had the wrong perspective.  In his example, that wasn't his fault.  It was what people had told him to that point to give him that perspective.

Jesus changed his perspective for us.  He left the splendor that is Heaven to see the world how we see it.  To live like we live.  He came and felt the sun on his face, water at his toes.  He smelled the sweet and the pungent.  He felt with hands like yours and mine.  Philippians 2 says it like this:

        5Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:

        6Who, being in very nature God,

        did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,

        7but made himself nothing,

        taking the very nature of a servant,

        being made in human likeness.

        8And being found in appearance as a man,

        he humbled himself

        and became obedient to death—

        even death on a cross!

So, since you're changing your perspective to see life from a friend or neighbors point of view, try and see that same friend from Jesus' perspective.

Jesus didn't see fishermen, he saw disciples.  He didn't see a woman caught in adultery, he saw a woman to forgive.  He didn't see a lost cause, he saw his cause, that was lost, and he came to bring us back.

Try changing your perspective, and experience life with the people around you.  Remember what Obi-wan said (yes I know he's a fictional character but his words ring true,)

"...many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view..."

Then remember the truer words Jesus said, "In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven."  Matthew 5:16.  Try to show them something their perspective can see.

Christ living in you.