Big Picture, Little Picture

After I gave my talk, one member of the congregation told me how my talk reminded them of the big picture, presumably of mortality and/or our war with the adversary. At the same time, I thought my talk had mostly focused on the little picture, noting the little things that we need to do "every day, every day, every day." I suppose one could argue that my talk kinda did both. It considered our fight with the adversary on the largest scale possible, then focused down to the scale of the day-to-day, and then enlarged again to consider our eternal potential. I hadn't even thought about doing that. I guess it kind of just happened, and I'm lucky that it did, because it's beneficial to be able to see from both perspectives.

We need both the big picture and the little picture. If we only have the big picture, we can get lost in the abstractions and lose sight of the details. If we only have the little picture, we can focus too hard on the details and lose sight of the greater meaning. When we travel, we need to be able to see both the nearby obstacles and the distant destination. If we lose sight of our destination, we could wander around aimlessly, walking around boulders, and if we focus exclusively on the destination, we're going to run into those boulders as we try to make our way to the destination. It's important to use both perspectives.

With both a temporal and eternal perspective, we can navigate the challenges of day-to-day life while working toward our eternal goal. The big picture lets us know where we're going and why, and the little picture helps us understand how we're going to get there. I'm glad that I am able to see both of those perspectives and that I was able to share both of those perspectives with others. Both the big picture and the little picture are important, so it's important for everyone to have an understanding of both of them.