Thinking with Clarity or “Seeing the Forest”

Five-Minute Friday. Do you see the forest or are you a tree person?

One definition of clarify is to clear one’s thinking of confusion or uncertainty. Many things contribute to a lack of clarity and focus. Worry, for example, is seeing something out of your control as a danger, or to think about something in the future without confidence in God.

“Can’t See the Forest for the Trees” is an idiom that means you see parts of the whole that cause you to miss comprehending the whole. When you get too focused on the details, you miss the main thing or the end goal. This has implications for marriage, parenting, investing, communications, government, planning, and just about anything else you might think about.

Goals Help You See the Forest

Goals are one way to see the big picture. When you have a goal, it is likely you have some thoughts about how to achieve your goal: you have priorities. If an individual tree falls, it doesn’t mean the forest is destroyed. For example, if my goal is to love my wife, or to be a wise investor, then my tasks will either declare that I am aligned with the goal (the forest), or I will be doing tree-focused stuff.

A Big Goal Found in Philippians 3:8-11

“Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.”

Straining Toward the Goal (3:12-14)

The Apostle Paul goes on to say, “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

Paul did not have what anyone could call an easy or comfortable life. But he saw the forest of his life differently than most do. Lots of individual trees fell; there were disappointments, setbacks, pains, abandonments of coworkers, and many just plain bad days. But he kept his focus. He saw the forest and the forest was his eternal purpose and final destination.

If only each of us were able to have the same perspective to clarify the trees in our lives in the context of the forest.

How to Identify a Follower of Jesus

Their definition of “home” is different from the vast majority of the world’s population.

2 Corinthians 5:1-10 is a good definition of the forest of the follower of Jesus.

“For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.

So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.”

Five Minute Friday

This post is part of the weekly Five-Minute Friday link-up.

All scripture passages are from the English Standard Version except as otherwise noted.