Choosing a true perspective is not the same as the cultural fad of “positive thinking”. Positive thinking is just another way we try to control our circumstances, believing we can manifest the good and expel the negative by focusing on one and ignoring the other.
This is not pursuing truth. Some circumstances are hard and some are easy. Some we label good and some bad. Some we want to hold on to and some we long to cast aside. Adopting a true perspective is about acknowledging all circumstances as terrain for the journey.
The aim is that we might see above the circumstances into what God is doing. His comfort is not in eliminating negative circumstances but in his persistent presence. Comfort comes by adjusting our proximity to Him, not by controlling our proximity to specific circumstances.
In order to discover truth, we need to face the very real and very challenging reality of negative circumstances. Just like we need to evaluate positive ones. We cannot control life by obsessing over one kind of circumstance or another.
Our only hope is to find rest in him. In the presence of Jesus, our comfort abounds. No matter what is happening around us.