How can I make sense of a Hurricane, Terrorist, Pandemic or even the airline industry in such a distressed condition? Do you know that each person lives with a worldview that tries to answer questions like these? So what about your worldview? Whether a person can define it or not, or whether it is accurate or not, a worldview is like glasses we put on daily to see and interpret events and circumstances of our world. Some event happens in the world or in our life and we try and make sense of it.
A worldview is a set of ideas and beliefs that we hold onto and use to interpret the Why’s and Why Not, pertaining to things that happen in our world. These ideas and beliefs are used to find meaning and make sense of the events and circumstances that happen around us. Let me illustrate how a Worldview can or cannot help us understand and live in this world. Some years ago I went to Trinidad to speak and minister in some churches there. One of the pastors, whom I had known, was a former professional Cricket player. We were passing by a local Cricket game, when he asked me if I understood the game. I honestly told him that when I look at Cricket it makes no sense to me. The only thing I understood was the tea break that transpired periodically during the game. In other words for me Cricket looked like a group of people running around on a field sporadically after hitting what looked like a ball with a flat looking bat. I did not understand how they scored or when they changed field position. Watching Cricket being played without knowing its strategy, purpose and goal, made no sense to me.
For many people living life in this world, do so with little or no understanding of the rules, strategy and purpose of the world they live in. When an event happens that directly affects their life they may interpret it through emotional hurt, or they may use facts and figure to calculate and somehow make sense to gain meaning. An example of this is when things are perceived as going well because stocks are up, or the company is making a profit, or I am going to be promoted. In these condition people assume that the world makes sense. However when storms and adversity come in their life and bring loss and turmoil, many people’s worldview is shattered and destroyed. They become disillusioned and even depressed because it all does not make sense anymore.
The Bible describes the total truth of Christianity like an anchor for the soul in a storm (Hebrews 6:19), one that gives us hope to persevere through the storms of life. Jesus gave a profound parable in Matthew 7:24-27, that described how our beliefs (worldview) will impact our life. He made a comparison between two different people. The one person who built their life on a solid rock that Jesus said was the truth of His word. The other person built their life on sand, which was likened to build on ideas and beliefs that are not God’s. Interestingly, both faced the same adversity, rain, wind and flood bursting upon their house. The one who built their life upon God’s truth held up through times of adversity. But the one who did not hold to God’s truth or worldview, collapsed in the hard times. Our Lord is telling us here that the real reliability of a man or women’s worldview will become evident in the storms of life. That being true, what is your life built upon? Have you built your life on the promises of your company, or on the truth and promises of God? For some the difficulties now in their airline have brought a stark revelation regarding the foundation they have built their life on, sadly like sand. For others, these adversities have driven them to find peace and stability in the caring hands of God in the midst of the storm.
The Christian Worldview does not give us every answer to satisfy all our questions. But, God does promise to give us the truth needed for understanding the condition of our world and ourselves. He has revealed Himself, describing His character and His purpose and goal for working in our world, and personal working in those who trust Him. We may not know why things happen, but we can be sure that God is up to something greater than our own comprehension (Ephesians 3:20), and that He will work together for good all things (Romans 8:28). The Christian worldview understands that in order to make sense of this world, we must live in it with God definitions and wisdom that identify His purpose and goals. This does not mean that grasping this makes life easy, but it does make life more understandable, guiding us along the way.
When the patriarch Job, (from the Old Testament book of Job) wrote and described his humiliation while going through some devastating trials, he likened it to going through a horrible storm, where he felt he was riding on the winds like a piece of straw (Job 30:22). The idea here is that the wind had swept every thing away and driven him about like a helpless object being ruined in a great storm. Job goes on to say that God allowed this experience to bring him to threshold of death, and appointed place in time where everyone living will face someday (Job 30:23). But it was there, in this place of adversity in the face of death that he stretches out his hand and cried out to God for help. Job later recorded that God’s answered him from out of the storm (Job 40:6). Though we do not know all the reasons why God allow the storms of life to bring loss and hardship, we do know that from this experience people, like Job, who cry out to God will find Him in a way like they never have in life before. Certainly Job experience this because at the end of his book he confessed that having gone through great stormy adversities he said “but now my eyes see you, oh God.” After being purge and refined Job’s worldview finally became centered on God, the creator and Lord of the universe. He discovered a deeper fulfillment with that Lord that even the things of life could not provide when he possessed them. But in the face of losing such things, it was there where he truly found God.
How have you responded in the adversities and trials of life? Has it been a humble realization that your life has been on things, like sinking sand, that aren’t lasting and will perish? Then like Job, turn to God in the storm and humbly put your trust in Him and His word. Know that God has promised to guide and provide for you even through the “valley of the shadow of death” (Psalm 23:4). At this time in the airline industry adversity and perplexity seems to permeate many of the airlines workplace. We must not forget that it is in the storm where we have opportunity to experience God in a deeper and renewed way. And it is also here where the Christian Worldview should be displayed with a most profound and exact simplicity to those around us.
by Paul Curtas