I attended Lancaster Bible College for 4 and 1/2 years.
While there, there was one topic that was always talked about. During Freshman
year I don't think that I was in a single class that did not mention at least
one part of this idea of a Worldview.
Every person has their own Worldview whether they know it or not. Your
Worldview is based off of people you know, your life experience, and so much
more. You may not know all of the parts of your Worldview but let me give you
an example of a situation where your Worldview would come into play.
Imagine you just had a long day at work/school and you knew you had another
meeting where you had to go back to work/school. You knew you needed a break
before your meeting so you went out to grab a bite to eat and your favorite
beverage. You come back to work/school fairly refreshed from your food but you
had some of your beverage left over. You go down the stairs and open the door
to work/school and pick up your beverage but your drink falls and spills all
over the floor. One of your fellow employees/school chums sees that there is a
mess. The employee/school chum helps you clean up the mess.
Now, you may be asking how in the world that situation has to do with your
worldview. I'm glad you asked. There are different parts of your Worldview that
would impact how you view this situation.
1. Your view of God-in this situation you could be thinking God hates me
because this happened even though I'm in a hurry to get to my meeting. Or, you
could be thinking thank you God for sending my fellow employee/school chum to
help me clean up my mess. Who knows, maybe because of that spill something good
happened. You could have impacted that person, you could have made a new
friend, you could influence that person to come to Christ, or you could have
avoided another disaster that would happen in the future.
2. Your view of the world-you could be thinking the world is a horrible place
because you lost your drink, you have this meeting, and it just isn't fair that
everything happens to you. Or, you could be thinking the world is such a great
place because it could have been much worse. I could have fallen down the steps
with this drink and gotten hurt, the drink could have gotten all over me, etc.
3. Your view of people-you could think that you wish another person would come
to help. You could also think that you can handle cleaning this up yourself
because you don't want to owe this person. Or, you could think that person was
so nice to help me clean this up. You could say thank you to that person and
strike up a conversation in order to make a new friend.
How you view God, the world, and people impacts how you act every day. Thus
this also goes as far as to say that how people treat you says what their
Worldview is like.
This is what I want you to think about: there is power in perspective. Getting
to know others and their Worldview helps you to walk in their shoes. It helps
you see who they are and why they do what they do. P.S. worldviews are always
changing because we change with experience.
So, do you know what your Worldview is? Are you trying to understand others
through their Worldview?
John 13:34 and Ecclesiastes 3