Sunday morning perspective before you head to church today.

I recall some years ago a pastor at my church talking about one weekend (before he was a pastor) when they were late getting to church.

It seemed as though nothing was going right that morning. Every time they thought they were closer to getting out the door, it seemed as if one thing happened after the other to delay their way.

Spilled Cheerios and milk on the floor, baby just filled her diaper again, the dog escaped outside, mom was running late getting ready, etc.

It just seemed as though the devil was doing everything possible to stop them from going to church that morning. But they made it out the door, even if it was just a little late.

Even though they were running late, this guy needed his coffee if he was going to make it through the Sunday service awake. So they stopped at the Starbucks on the way, making them just a bit later. Perhaps they would squeeze in between songs two and three of the worship set.

When they finally got to the church parking lot and pulled into the furthest spot away that was open, he put his precious coffee on the back bumper to unload the family.

No sooner than he turned around, his son knocked the coffee over and it all spilled on the ground.

The moral of the story was that because this man walked with God, he was able to keep his composure through all of this and not be upset with his family. Because he was following in the footsteps of Jesus Christ, he knew that letting all of this get the better of him would mean Satan would win that day.

While he’s not wrong on some level. While we tend to look at Satan and sin as these huge monsters we will see coming a mile away, they actually focus on the little details of our lives in hopes that we will slip up. That the devil would laugh and point “Ha, you got upset over spilled coffee on the way to church, and you call yourself a Christian?”

We must be alert to the little ways that Satan uses sin to win over us.

But at the same time, by reducing Satan and sins power over us to get upset over spilled cereal or coffee we’re doing them a huge dis-service.

Jesus Christ was not brutally tortured and murdered on the cross so that you can keep your composure over the loss of your Starbucks coffee.

When Jesus Christ was in his ministry, his disciples did not travel to his sermons in their minivans with wifi and temperature-controlled leather seats and automatic climate control. Their biggest concerns were not being late but finding the time to get their no-fat, double-whipped, 1/2 sugar latte in before the worship music started.

They literally walked miles every day travelling with Jesus just to be with him and learn from Him. While I know this might sound horrible…but they didn’t even have good runners with gel souls and arc support.

While we can have a deep relationship with Jesus and have him guide us through our life struggles, we must always understand the perspective. We must know what he saved us from by understanding the times He was in.

He was constantly having to defend who He was and His teachings to the Pharisees as they tried to trap him into looking like a false teacher so they could have him arrested or stoned.

He had to deal with the fact that the Roman Empire was not liking the attention He was getting or the lessons He was teaching beyond that of the Empire.

He knew all of this was going to lead to His capture and horrible death, but he would embrace it in order that he would save the world of sin.

He endured hours of torture, lashing, kicking, spitting, heckling, hair-pulling, and finally crucifixion.

And He did all of this simply so you can keep your composure and not get upset when things are not going your way?

Look. My point is not to bash this pastor’s message that day or make little of the things you struggle with on a day-to-day basis.

Sometimes we’re dealing with so much internally that it seems like there is a great victory in just the little things. Sometimes catching our temper before it’s released is a big win for our family or those around us.

Jesus is here to help you get through even the littlest things in life because of the proper perspective we have in Him.

But in our modern world of great luxury and pretty darn easy lives let’s not lose perspective. In our busy lives of trying to put on this show of our perfect little Christian lives, let’s keep it real and not reduce the reality of how sin operates and the enormity of what God has done for us.