Thought for the Day:
Way back in college, I earned two Bachelor degrees; one in Criminal
Justice and another in Psychology. In
one of my psych courses, I had to set up and run an experiment of some
sort. I chose to test eye witness
testimony to an accident scene, combining my two courses of study. The results of my experiment indicated that
eye witness testimony is not very reliable.
People’s perception and memory varied widely from the reality of the
scene I had created. Just because
someone experienced an event doesn’t mean that they have an accurate
understanding of what they really saw.
Over 20 years ago, in my first church, I had a woman who angrily
confronted me for avoiding speaking to her on the phone. She accused me of purposefully dodging her
phone calls because of my great dislike of her.
She claimed to have called me numerous times and that I never once had
returned her calls. She read me the riot
act and it wasn’t pretty. After she had
ranted for a while, I was finally able to ask her a few questions. I honestly never remembered receiving any
calls from her at all, so I was curious.
I found out that she always called the church office on Mondays—she would
call numerous times and I would never pick up and talk to her. That explained a lot. This was before cell phones, Caller ID, and
phones that kept a record of missed calls.
So although she claimed that I knew it was her calling and I was
avoiding her; I would have had no way of knowing who it was before I picked up
the phone. Secondly, I now knew why on every
Tuesday morning when I went into the office there were lots of empty phone
messages on the recorder. She would let
the phone ring until the recorder kicked in but would never leave a message.
And lastly, Monday was my day off and I was never in the office and rarely even
at home during the day on Mondays, so there was absolutely no way for me to
have a chance to ditch her calls.
Despite her perception that I hated her and therefore avoided her phone
calls, the reality was that I never knew she had called and I wasn’t near the
phone anytime that she tried to call me.
(Although I have to admit that AFTER she chewed me out and made her
accusations, I really didn’t want to answer the phone in case it was her
wanting to rant some more). Her
perception did not match reality. She
had decided that I hated her and therefore I avoided talking to her on the
phone, because she called me numerous times on my day off and never left any
messages. I can’t recall for certain;
but I believe that she never accepted my explanation and never changed her mind
about me.
Have you ever wondered why candidates from different parties can look
at the same data and one conclude failure and the other victory? Our perception clouds our view of reality.
Look at what Os Hillman wrote this morning:
Is Perception Reality?
1 Kings 19:18 “Yet I have reserved seven
thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth
that has not kissed him.”
“One the great acts of the prophet
Elijah took place at Mount Carmel where he called down fire upon the altar of
Baal and slaughtered 400 prophets of Baal. I have been to Mount Carmel in
Israel and stood upon this mountain where this took place. Once the miracle
took place Elijah was forced to flee because Jezebel swore to take his life for
what he did.”
“Elijah went into depression after this
event. He fled to the desert and sat under a broom tree and asked God to let
him die. He was so discouraged because he felt he was the only godly prophet
left in the land of Israel. This is often what happens after God does a
significant work through us. Satan comes along and wants to steal what God has
done and bring the servant of God down. Satan makes us believe a lie about our
situation. This was the case for Elijah.”
“Elijah's perception was not reality.
He thought he was the last of the prophets. He could not see what God was
doing. God informed Elijah that there were actually seven thousand of His
representatives in the land who had not bowed down to Baal. Now give some
thought to that statement. Elijah thought he was the only one left. God says
there are 7,000 left! What a discrepancy in perception and reality.”
“This is often the case for you and I.
We look at our situations and conclude based on the circumstances that reality
must be this way. But God says, ‘No, you do not see what I see or what I know
or what I am doing. The situation is very different than what you are
perceiving.’”
“Be careful not to draw conclusions about your situation
that may not be based on truth. God always has a plan for His servants that we
may not know about. Ask God to give you His perception of the situation, not
yours.” [Os
Hillman, TGIF Today God Is First, Volume 1, 09-22-2014].
Think for a moment about your life. Aren’t you a bit like me, and at times, you
have to admit that you have perceived that your spouse or significant other
doesn’t love you? That people are out to
get you and the whole world is against you?
That your life is over because of an event that has occurred? That your life is so awful and filled with
pain that you question whether it is all worth it? That circumstances indicate that you will
never be happy again? That you have no real friends and that nobody loves
you? That God must hate you? That your life is hopeless, worthless, and
you have no future? That conspiracy
theories are all true and everyone is out to get you?
On occasion we think like that. We have to admit that when we do we are
viewing life as a “glass half empty” kind of person. The weird thing about our minds is that it
can be very difficult to believe that our perception is skewed. If someone tells us we are being paranoid, we
begin to suspect them as well! Just
because we perceive it does not make it real and true!
Even after seeing yourself in the mirror every day, have you
ever seen a picture of yourself and been shocked by how fat you look or how
bald that you are? Our perception of
ourselves may not accurately reflect reality.
Know anybody who thinks they sing well who really sounds like two cats
fighting in a bag? Ever have a friend
that thought he looked cool when everybody else thought he was lame? It is the
fight of the century: Perception v. Reality.
I could go on and on with examples; but let me conclude with
two thoughts. First, knowing that our
perception may be skewed; don’t make major decisions without getting some
advice from clear-headed people. Be open
to other’s point of view. Try to base
your decisions on the facts. Secondly, remember
that contrary to everything that you might have experienced and believe to be true—God
loves you. He is willing to accept you
and grant you forgiveness. He wants to
bless you and see you live a full, rich life.
There is nothing you have done (or will do) that can change this fact. Trust His declared truth and not your own
potentially flawed perceptions.
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