Shirts and stripes

Last week I had a small dilemma and I took to Facebook to find an answer. I couldn't tell if this shirt was pink with white stripes or white with pink stripes:

Why is this such a pressing question for me you ask? Partly because I'd held out so long against the "pink tide" flooding through menswear stores over the last few years. However, this isn't simply an issue of shirt colours, this is an issue of perspective. It’s a familiar question: is the glass half full or half empty, is this issue black or white?

Too often though we can’t decide between one or the other and so we settle with the grey matter. But as one wise man once told me: between black and white isn't grey matter, between black and white is actually every colour in the spectrum...........Deep.

I don’t believe that God created the world to be one thing or the other. I can’t believe that. Everything within me tells me that for the world to be created it must have been created by someone pretty darn amazing, and that they wouldn't have cut corners either. Such a God and such a world couldn't be boxed in as black or white, half full or half empty.  As I look around at the world my senses are enchanted by a dynamism far more complicated than just black or white.

If I live in such a world that presents so many options, how can I make decisions based on black or white? How can I live in ignorance of all the teals, the African purples, the banana yellows and blanched almonds (list courtesy of Wikipedia, I had no idea there were so many colours!) that surround me in life?

Perspective: it’s a game changer, and if we are real about making a difference in the world than we can’t simply look at the world as black or white. Is my shirt pink with white stripes or white with pink stripes? Actually, it’s a piece of clothing that I’m able to wear to work when elsewhere in this world there are people that have neither clothing or employment. Is the world black and white, or is it a realm full of possibility that's awaiting transformation? I don't know about you, but I'll choose not to be colour blind.