I've been reading a book called, "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens." In it, the author, Sean Covey (son of Stephen R. Covey, author of "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People") talks about paradigm shifts. What's a paradigm? you ask. Sean Covey explains it as this: "A paradigm is the way you something, your point of view, frame of reference, or belief." Every once in a while, I think everyone needs a paradigm shift. Look at this story from Reader's Digest:A friend of mine, returning to South Africa from a long stay in Europe, found herself with some time to spare at London's Heathrow Airport. Buying a cup of coffee and a small package of cookies, she staggered, laden with luggage, to an unoccupied table. She was reading the morning paper when she became aware of someone rustling at her table. From behind her paper, she was flabbergasted to see a neatly dressed young man helping himself to her cookies. She did not want to make a scene, so she leaned across the table and took a cookie herself. A minute or so passed. More rustling. He was helping himself to another cookie. By the time they were down to the last cookie in the package, she was very angry but still could not bring herself to say anything. Then, the young man broke the cookie in two, pushed half across to her, ate the other half and left. Some time later, when the public-address system called for her to present her ticket, she was still fuming. Imagine her embarrassment when she opened her handbag and was confronted by a package of cookies. She had been eating his.
This lady received a paradigm shift. One moment she was fuming at the man who had been eating her cookies, without saying a thing, and the next she was amazed at the kindness of him at sharing his cookies with her. We need to look at the context of situations instead of judging the book by its cover. As Christians, we need to open our hearts and our attitudes to the truth, just as the Lord does (1 Samuel 16:7). Let's do our very best so that we don't need to have a paradigm shift!