Per·spi·ca·cious: when you just need the ability to see through

Note: I originally wrote this post last November (2016).



This word surfaced in my mind several months ago when I was settling down for the night. I had to look it up, because I didn't even know what it meant at the time. I discovered perspicacious is from the Latin root word perspicax, which means sharp-sighted, having the power of seeing through.

That's what I've been needing.

You see, lately I've been praying for an eternal perspective.

Chaos is happening faster than I can process it, and it's easy to lose perspective on what's truly meaningful when there are so many stories clamoring for attention. This last week, I scrolled through my Facebook feed to see friends struggling with chronic illness, breaking news of fires raging in my home state, the sad news of a school bus crash that left 6 families without a child as they headed into Thanksgiving week, and the shock of yet another school shooting.

These stories are heartbreaking. How do we live our beautiful lives with the knowledge that others are stuck in a nightmare? How do we trust that God is good when evil abounds?

I want to see past the visible - the temporary things that tempt me to think that God is MIA- to the eternal truth that God is an ever present help in time of trouble. He's not on vacation, hasn't turned a deaf ear to our cries, and our pain is just an indication that things are not as God originally intended.
We cannot stop the chaos in this world, but we can choose to be brave, to love fiercely, to cling to God's reality in the midst of the alternate reality we seem to be in.


Injustice and pain do not get the last word.

Hate will not get the last word.

Bigotry and racism will not steal the last scene; only God gets to say when we are on the final page.

If there are tears, then you can know - God's not done yet. He is writing a beautiful story, even in the middle of this brokenness.

I will be brave enough to believe that.

God, please give us the ability to see through. Let us be perspicacious.

Have you felt overwhelmed by the news lately?
How do you handle the social stream?