Professor Kuhlman taught me a lot about economics, but the lesson I remember most was about the power of perspective.
I was a freshman in his economics class, sitting with about 200 other students in a University of Missouri lecture hall in 1974, when he explained how he could tell in 30 seconds how any student he met was doing at Mizzou. All he had to do was ask, “What are you doing here?”
Students who could tell him why they were in college would be fine, he said, and students who didn’t know were likely struggling.
Why?
Because college is too hard to take on without a motivating purpose, Dr. Kuhlman said. To overcome its day-to-day challenges requires a vision.
I never forgot Dr. Kuhlman’s words because I have seen them borne out in many aspects of my life—including my eternal perspective on life—and the lives of others. It seems that without an eternal perspective, people don’t know what they are doing here.
Simply stated, people with an eternal perspective face life’s challenges with hope, optimism, even joy. And their perspective shows in their day-to-day living. And other people notice it. In contrast, people without an eternal perspective don’t seem as happy. In fact, these days they seem desperate.
So, clarity for me can be summed up in one revealing question – Do I believe the first four words of the Bible?
They are, “In the beginning, God….”
Standing on them offers a view of eternity because they indicate we got here on purpose, and there is something ahead. They also open a lot of possibilities for here and now: miracles, deliverance, love in an unloving time, hope when the world seems hopeless. If God exists and started this, then something is playing out, and anything is possible. But rejecting those first four words makes any ensuing hope, love, freedom, even purpose, unreasonable.
A follow-up question I ask myself is: What do I think of these words from the Bible?
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
1 Cor. 2:9 (NKJV)
If I believe them, eternity is too good to comprehend. If not, it’s too good to be true. My answer will influence what I decide to do here.
To accept the words is to stand on a mountaintop, to see a distant goal, and to have a reason to go after it wholeheartedly. To reject these words means something else must motivate me — if I am going to go anywhere at all.
One of my favorite paintings is “Wanderer above the Sea of Fog” by Caspar David Friedrich.
It reminds me of the power of perspective, Dr. Kuhlman’s lesson. Am I focused on the things of this world, or something at a greater distance? My answer will say a lot about how I live my life.
Phil Randall
English
Clemson University