Perspective

Somewhat of an individualist, I realize true individualism comes with a price and that price is that one simply isn't going to fit into another's mold of liking with much frequency. That's okay -- I don't expect everyone to understand my "style" or get why I choose to wear what I wear or why I risk life and limb on the back of a fast motorcycle. As the old cliche' goes... "to each their own." I'm just fine with that.

What does disturb me is when people (particularly non-Christians) circumstantially receive a misrepresentation of who Jesus is by the way Christians portray Him. It is a dilemma facing Christianity since the beginning and one for which there is no eminent answer. Well, the easy answer is to simply "act like Jesus" but even that is open to vast subjectivity. I guess it all really comes down to perspective, doesn't it?

Julian Beever, a European artist whose talents impress me, has an uncanny ability to work with chalk on city sidewalks with amazing attention to perspective. The photo below is an example of his use of perspective. From this angle, you will likely not be able to discern the image. It just looks kind of weird -- colorful, but flat and not terribly engaging.



To achieve his "illusions" of art, Beever must work in incredible proportion to obtain the 3-D perspective for which his art has become known. Some of his pieces of art are as much as 20 feet in length in one directional angle! Like this one above. The portion of the chalk drawing protruding toward you is several times the height of the people standing next to it. It is necessary to draw at this length to achieve the desired effect.

When people watch Christians in culture (and I tend to think non-Christians watch Christians more than Christians care to think they do), they may take one individual's behavior "out of context" and interpret that behavior as "generally applicable" to the vast Christian community at large. Worse yet, they may generally apply that perspective to Christ himself! It is likely the observing party is only looking at Christianity from one perspective and hasn't "walked around" enough to get the whole picture. Subjective observation is often lacking when it comes to matters of faith.

If the previous perspective were the only angle of Beever's work you saw, you likely wouldn't be impressed and perhaps rightly so. But if you see the work from another angle... and the artist's engagement in the work... I'm guessing the image will stick with you. Now look from the proper angle...


Now that you see it from the intended angle, the perspective of everything changes! Isn't his work impressive?

While a Christian perhaps can't avoid the unintentional (or even intentional) misrepresentation of Jesus in our culture, we can at least be aware enough of another's perspective that we work diligently at exposing people to Jesus the way the Christ intended for us to represent Him. It should be a part of our daily faith walk to be aware of how behaviors, attitudes, dispositions, language choice, whatever... represents the Lord. We need to work at presenting Christ in an authentic manner so people see the "real" Jesus. That requires continual reformation of my character and likeness to the "Jesus life." If I merely rely on my own preferences or perspectives, it will skew the view of the true Image.

For some, it may only be a matter of proper perspective, to see the real amazing image of Jesus. If you are a Christ follower, be aware of another's perspective and represent an authentic perspective. When we don't (and we've all been there) the image is flat. But when we do... it is an amazing thing to see!