Now I Will Rise
1 John 4:4
There are two interesting psychological terms associated with a shift in perspective: the placebo effect and the nocebo effect.
The “placebo effect” refers to a phenomenon in which a fake medication can produce actual therapeutic results in a patient, driven by self-suggestion stemming from a positive outlook. The exact opposite of this phenomenon is called the “nocebo effect.”
This describes the phenomenon where a patient experiences negative symptoms when they harbor negative expectations regarding their treatment. It is a form of negative self-suggestion born of a negative perspective. In severe cases, this can even lead to death.
These terms illustrate how a mere shift in perspective can lead to such vastly different outcomes.
“Perspective” refers to “the attitude, direction, or standpoint from which a person views and interprets objects or phenomena.” Our perspective can change depending on “what—or whom—we choose to look at.” To “change one’s perspective” means to step back from being fully immersed in one’s immediate circumstances—rather than viewing oneself solely through the lens of the problem at hand—and instead view oneself from a fresh, new vantage point.
There is a well-known anecdote regarding the late Chairman Chung Ju-yung that illustrates this concept of shifting one’s perspective.
When he was a young man working as a day laborer in Incheon, he would return to his lodgings exhausted after a hard day’s work, only to find himself unable to sleep due to the swarms of bedbugs infesting the place. After much deliberation, he built a simple wooden platform bed, filled four large basins with water, and placed each of the bed’s four legs into a basin.
He reasoned that since the bedbugs could not swim across the water in the basins, they would be unable to climb up the legs and reach the sleeping surface. His prediction proved correct. Consequently, for several days, he was able to sleep soundly, free from the onslaught of the bedbugs.
However, after a few days had passed, the bedbugs began their assault once again. So, he turned on the lights and began observing throughout the night to see how the bedbugs managed to climb onto his sleeping platform.
The young Chung Ju-yung discovered a startling fact. Realizing they could not crawl up the legs of the platform, the bedbugs would instead climb up the wall from the floor, traverse the ceiling, make their way directly over the platform, and then drop down onto it.
Witnessing this, he reportedly began muttering to himself—even in his daily life—the phrase, “I must be at least smarter than a bedbug.” This became his “business philosophy.” He had realized that no matter how difficult a situation might be, there is always a solution to be found.
That solution is a “shift in perspective.” It is the result one can achieve by changing one’s mindset, driven by an unwavering conviction to accomplish a specific goal. It was a lesson he learned from the bedbugs: a “shift in perspective.”
As Peter and John were going up to the Temple to pray at the ninth hour (the time of prayer), they noticed a man sitting at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple, begging. Peter and John said to the lame man, “Look at us.”
“Peter, together with John, looked intently at him and said, ‘Look at us.'”
(Acts 3:4)
The man was forty years old and had been lame since birth. He was someone who sat at the Beautiful Gate every day to beg from the people entering the Temple.
The Beautiful Gate of the Temple was an ideal location for begging. In Judaism, acts of charity were considered a great virtue. Those entering the Temple could find a sense of personal fulfillment by tossing coins to the man as they passed by.
Thus, while that spot was the absolute best location for the lame man, it was not an unwelcome place for the Jews entering the Temple, either. The lame man begged at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple day after day.
Begging was his profession. The Beautiful Gate of the Temple was his workplace. His customers were the Jews entering the Temple to worship. Here, he was missing the most important thing.
He had no desire to venture any further than the Beautiful Gate of the Temple. Although he sat at the Beautiful Gate day after day, begging from those entering the Temple, he himself made no attempt to enter it.
To him, the Temple was merely a “place for begging,” not a “place for prayer.” Peter and John were on their way to the Temple to pray. Fixing their gaze upon the lame man, they said, “Look at us!”
What was the unspoken message behind those words? “We, too, were once spiritual cripples just like you. But now, we are made whole. Do you realize what it is that you truly need?”
“We, too, were once exactly the same as you. In the past, just like you, we harbored no hope within us. We, too, used to chase after the things of this earth. But we have changed!”
“We have no silver or gold to give you; instead, we offer you the name of Jesus—the One who has transformed us in this very way. Rise up and walk! The Temple is not a place for begging; it is a place for prayer.” It was a powerful invitation urging us to embrace a “change in perspective.”
As we, too, fix our eyes upon the Lord, we can make this confession of faith: “We can do all things through Him who gives us strength.” This is the “faith that overcomes the world.”
“You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” (1 John 4:4)
Today, once again, we step forward into the urgent and difficult circumstances of our lives, making this declaration: “Now—I will rise again in the name of Jesus!” “Grant that I may live by faith alone!”
O God,
“Grant that I may live by faith alone!”
“In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, I will rise again!”
Enable me to go forward, making this declaration.
I pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen
