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Bulletin 106 Date : 6th Aug 2007
Close up or heads up

Having worked for a number of American companies in the past, I tend to get irritated by the way in which ‘americanisms’ creep into our every day vocabulary. Not only did I find that many senior people who travelled regularly over to the USA would develop a ‘mid-Atlantic’ twang (half English and half American) but that they would bring back with them a host of words or phrases which have now supplemented our own language. However, one such phrase which I actually like is the term ‘heads up’.

A ‘heads up’ is a meeting where people drop what they are doing and gather together to talk about the wider picture of what’s going on. I like this because it reminds us that we can get too absorbed in our own work that we lose sight of the bigger picture. This can cause us to become isolationist and even critical of people who don’t appreciate all the problems we have on our plate. “Why can’t they see it from my point of view?” we moan.

Well of course, the reverse is true. When we become so absorbed in our own little world, we don’t appreciate the problems that others face.

As a photographer, I like using my macro lens. This lens allows me to take great close-up photos like the one at the top of this bulletin. The result is that the subject of the photo is in clear focus while the background is strangely blurred. The picture you see is a petunia with Lincoln Cathedral in the background. Isn’t that just how we can get in our thinking? We’re so focussed on our main problem that we fail to see the glory of what’s beyond us. Photographers among you will know, however, that if it’s a bright sunny day, you can set the aperture in such a way that the depth of field is higher and the foreground and background are both in focus. It’s a wise person who can do that in their everyday life.

Proverbs 8 says this:-

¹ Does not wisdom call,
and does not understanding raise her voice?
² On the heights, beside the way,
at the crossroads she takes her stand;
³ beside the gates in front of the town,
at the entrance of the portals she cries out:
⁴ “To you, O people, I call,
and my cry is to all that live.
⁵ O simple ones, learn prudence;
acquire intelligence, you who lack it. (NRSV)

It’s true! All around us, on the heights, at the crossroads, beside the gates and everywhere, God’s wisdom and understanding are waiting for us, if only we will take a ‘heads up’. The trouble is we miss out on these because we miss out on a ‘heads up’ and remain too ‘close-up’.