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As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a psychologist, but there was a season of my life when I was really struggling with what I wanted to do vocationally. And I actually tried out for the FBI. I was going to be somebody who did psychological profiling or assessments. I had no thought to having to do anything physical. And yet, no matter what, if you try out for the FBI you’ve got to pass a physical fitness test. So I trained, I worked hard. I built up the muscle and endurance. And I went in and took that test. And wouldn’t you know – I missed it by one sit-up! I was devastated. And for months afterward, all I could think about was how I missed that test by one sit-up!
It took a long time before God really laid this on my heart. The way the FBI measures success in a sit-up is by breaking a 90-degree barrier when you’re coming up. It’s not just that I didn’t do the sit-up – I did – but I didn’t break the 90-degrees. And all I could think about was missing that sit-up. But I probably got to about 75-degree angle in my sit-up.
How often do we only look at the things in our life that we’re not doing – that we’re not accomplishing? Things that we’re not living up to? When God has actually orchestrated so many amazing things in our life that are working. So I began to challenge myself to think about that one sit-up as a 75-degree success. In the world of grading, 75 is actually average. Shifting my perspective really changed the way I began to look at the factors in my life.
When it comes to radical acceptance, when it comes to seeing the barriers to change in our life, when it comes to knowing our values and our purpose, my encouragement to you is to shift your perspective. To look to see what is there. To look to see what you’ve accomplished, to look to see where God has brought you, especially in the small things.
We get caught up in the big things. All I could think about was failing that test, instead of all the steps I had taken to accomplish almost all the way there. And God has brought me into a season that I love, that I wouldn’t have been in if I had been off gallivanting around as an FBI agent (which still does sound pretty cool!). So look for what’s there. Look for what God has brought into your life.
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