Perspectives

First of all, I would like to offer an apology. Mandi informed me of the wrong in my statement on Paul's blog regarding "that girl" from his freshman year. I was stretching for humor and an argument where I didn't have one. Mandi did point out that there were countless other arguments that I could have used (many of which were quite funny), but since I was unable to come up with those and instead attacked something of which this girl had no control, I unfortunately was found wanting. So, here is my apology for my poor judgment.

Second, I can't tell if anyone even tried guessing at the riddle I posed the last time I posted. I guess after going on about the clapping thing...at any rate, a hint is that you should be thinking of a word, and that the word is a number. It's quite clever in my opinion. Once you've gotten that one, you can move on to this one. It's entitled "Odd Two Out Too". I'll warn you, my guesses were not correct, so apparently my reasoning was off. Here we go:

You have to find the odd ones out in the groups of words. BUT WAIT! There's a catch. Each group of words has TWO words which do not belong. Can you find them both?

EXAMPLE: Lily - Jane - Tulip - Rose
Jane does not belong as it's the only one which is not a flower. Tulip also does not belong because it's the only one which is not a girl's name (although I guess someone could name their (poor) child Tulip...). You're on you own for the rest!

1. Dodge - Ford - Lincoln - Hoover
2. King - Earl - Knight - Bishop
3. Yellow - Green - Dead - Black

You know, it is funny how so many things can be viewed from the same place, and yet be seen so very differently. All you have to do is talk to a group of people who viewed any type of spectacular event, and you'll get just as many stories about what really happened. Being a soccer person, a sporting event that holds as a fair example is in regards to the 1966 World Cup Final. The final was contested between England and West Germany, and had gone in to extra time tied 2 to 2. The English went forward, and off of a corner kick, the player controls the ball, turns, and fires on goal. It bounces off the underside of the bar almost straight down towards the goal line, then back in to the field of play where it is cleared out of bounds. For those of you that don't know soccer, a goal is scored only when the entire ball crosses the entire line. The near-side linesman gave that it was in fact a goal, and the English went on to win 4-2 for their only World Cup triumph. If you watch the replay of that goal, it is hard to say whether the ball crossed the line. I've watched it a number of times throughout the past years, and even my vote goes back and forth. Sometimes it looks like it's over the line. Other times, it doesn't look like it crossed. People still debate whether a goal should have been given, and however many people that could fit in to that stadium all have their own opinion.

Opinion is always given based on perspective, at least as far as I can tell. Opinion isn't truth, it's simply what someone believes to be true based on their knowledge. If you continue with the above example, the opinion of someone sitting on the opposite side of the field shouldn't be given anywhere near as much weight as someone sitting right on the goal line. Why? The person on the goal-line obviously had a better perspective of what happened and would be a better judge to say what did or did not happen in relation to the rules. If you want to know people's opinions on how well a particular car drives, you don't go to a 4 year old and ask him which car he likes best. If you want to know what type of individual Jesus is, you don't go and ask your best friend and take only his/her story.

The gospels are our best information to what happened during the lifetime of Jesus. They are given to us from the 4 different perspectives of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. They present a broad portrait of Jesus, what he did, and why he did it. They were given to us so that we might come to know him better. We can't take our parents/friends/preachers relationship with Christ and call it our own. It's got to be personal. It's got to be from our perspective.