It really doesn't matter which area or which subject you might name, but one should try always to get the big picture of whatever the subject or area is.  If you get only a partial view, then you will miss something.  That something may well be important.  Getting the big picture gives you, also, a frame of reference against which to understand whatever the subject is.  This is certainly true in religion, in study of the Bible, in studying theology or church history, in missions, and in contemporary affairs or events.  You need to get the big picture as quickly as you can.  Better understanding comes only when you get the big picture.

I received an email from a church member the other day which was trying to inform people about the big picture in Iraq.  The information in the email came from a soldier, an Army Ranger, actually.  He was making the point that not even he or any other soldier, sailor, airman, or marine could appreciate all that is going on in Iraq unless they had the big picture, or unless they knew "the rest of the story," as he put it.  Our military personnel tell us that the situation in Iraq is grim.  I don't know enough to know whether they are correct or not.  The email which I received talks about all the countries which have reestablished their embassies in Iraq, the employment figures of the Iraqi government, the schools which have been renovated, the schools currently being rehabilitated, the new schools being planned or already under construction, the number of institutions of higher education operating in Iraq, the true status of the Iraqi military and Iraqi police, and I could go on.

The point made by the email--and it is valid--is that the American media do not tend to encourage people to get the big picture.  They have a point of view which they are trying to sell.  The job of the media is to report and interpret the news--all of it.  The number of Iraqis who have died on any given day is news, but so is the opening of a new school.  And some 38 new schools have been completed and opened.  It is news that some 96% of Iraqi children under the age of 5 have received the first two polio vaccinations.  That really is news!  It is news that some 4.3 million Iraqi children were enrolled in primary school by October of last year.  I hope you see the point.

Partial points of view, partisan politics, whatever or whoever is the culprit who keeps us from getting the larger picture is keeping the American public from doing our very best to be world citizens.  You don't become an effective world citizen by listening to demagogues on the right or on the left.  YOu become a world citizen by being a big person.  By learning as much as you can about the world and about the countries in the world.  You never shut off your mind, but you continue to process information and to learn.  Opinions and decisions made should be made from the perspective of the "big picture," not a little provincial one.

I am not selling the war; I am not downing the war.  I am trying to make the point that as an educated person who has travelled overseas somewhat, I like to get the "big picture" as often as I can.  What about you?  Wouldn't Jesus want us to do that, also?  Didn't He have the "big picture?"