Last week, I was sitting in Sunday school, looking over our lesson before class started. When I finished reviewing it, I turned the lesson book over and fanned through the pages with my thumb.
Without thinking about it, I flipped the book over and did the same thing from the front. When I did, I realized the pages looked like a different color. I turned the book back over and fanned through them again. Sure enough, the pages appeared to be different colors depending on whether I fanned them from the front or the back.
A seemingly simple exercise started the wheels in my brain turning.
How many times are we guilty of seeing the colors of life from only one side of the book?
The material in our Sunday school book was the same no matter which way I flipped through it, but the colors were certainly different. What I saw depended on whether I started from the front or the back.
Neither way was wrong. It was simply a different way of flipping through the book and seeing all the colors it had to offer.
Many times, we miss some of the colors of life because we believe we can only flip the book one way.
What are we missing by viewing life from only one side?
Imagine the variety of sights, sounds, and experiences we could encounter if we became more open to flipping the pages a different way. The content of the pages doesn’t change—only how we experience them.
My challenge to each of us is this: As we go through different experiences in life, take a moment to flip the book. Consider what could be learned, understood, or challenged by looking at the situation from a different perspective.
The experience may be the same, but how you view it can change everything about the experience.
Flip the view.