So, sometimes our perception isn’t so precise is it? Sometimes how we view it, is just wrong on so many levels? Often we don’t see clearly all the detail of all the stuff in our way and so we make false judgement, wrong decisions , critical remarks and as a result we act and react on false pretences just because our vision is dimmed.
The other morning I noticed a spider in the bathtub, and you have to understand, we don’t get along well. No, spiders and me ~ well, we just don’t see eye to eye. Oh, I love the elegant patterns etched into their silken webs and for photography I find their amazing draping, spun creations fascinating as they glisten with dewdrops in a hazy, morning sun! However, the way the spider crawls about in mid-air and free-fall to spin it’s elegant design is frightful for one who’s standing in close proximity. Maybe it stems from baggage of a fear awakened in my childhood spirit, when upon awaking one morning, sleepy eyes met with adrenaline, widened and focused rather quickly to see a spider dangling from its web about two inches from my face! Did I say, I panicked? How does an eight year old figure this one out? Screaming wasn’t going to help! I gently blew him to the left in order to crawl out from underneath, hoping he didn’t drop further! Yeah, to this day, I don’t like them and I really dislike their spidery, leggy characteristics and the way they crawl about so creepy like. So, here we were and this spider who was found lodging in the tub just had to be got! I grabbed a very thick wad of paper to make sure he didn’t get away! Now, my eyesight isn’t what it used to be and without magnifying glasses all fine detail is a blur and a lot of things look the same to me. I sized up the moment as best I could and with bad eyes took him out! Upon checking to make sure I had him, he moved and fell back into the tub. I panicked and dropped the whole wad of nonsense, only to recoup to find to my embarrassment, it was nothing but nonsense as a clearer view revealed a fluffy fuzz of dog fur that floated off the wad, into the air drifting back into the tub. No damage done this time, just a wake up call to not be so anxious about things that might not even be. But how many times do I need to be reminded?
Do you do the same? Do you find yourself worrying about things that aren’t? Feel panicked about things that aren’t concrete? Anxious about issues that aren’t set in stone? I didn’t see clearly enough to know detail and so I had it all wrong. O.k so here’s the thing friends, physical eyesight isn’t always accurate and sweet and beautiful soul, neither is our spiritual insight? We are called to be discerners but we have to take care to see clearly before acting or reacting. In John 7: 24, Jesus rebukes a critical crowd in the temple courts, when He says to them “Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgement.”
Sometimes you and I and we and us, don’t we just get it all wrong and judge before we gather all the facts? We see, we perceive, we size up and we assume all manner of things! Our false perception leads us off track and our nonsense possibly leads many others astray as our false belief gives way to gossip and spreads like uncontrolled flames licking through a forest! Unlike the “no big deal” of it wasn’t a spider after all, we can burn valuable bridges causing a lot of damage to ourselves and to others because of anxieties and false perceptions.
Yeah, beautiful soul, you and I and we and us, we need to take care to give the heart magnifying glasses to see things through the eyes of spiritual discernment opened up in the Light of Truth, before we jump head-first into something that’s all wrong. Sometimes, we need to put our “holier than thou” caps on the hooks of challenge and seek to understand by joining the ranks of those living where the rubber meets the road so to speak. Walk in their shoes and carry their baggage! Not all things come together to make a nice, clean, tidy story of perfection but each one is writing God’s story for their lives as the divine and sovereign God heals, repairs and perfects that which concerns them. David knew His God well and reminds himself and us of His constant care in Psalm 138:8, “The Lord will perfect that which concerns me; Your love O Lord endures forever. Do not abandon the works of your hands.”
How’s our story? Not perfect eh? Rest assured God is working on you and He’s working on them! Who are we to judge then? In Proverbs 3: 13 we have a promise of blessing to the wise and to those who seek to understand. “ Blessed is the one who finds wisdom, and the one who gets understanding…How then do we get wisdom? How then do we understand?
James 1:5
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.
~k
#SoulFire
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I wonder if we, as believers just sit in the church pews Sunday morning half asleep? Oh yeah, we sit and hear messages of social gospel and nice things and good people and how we can be good people and how it’s good enough just to be good people. Or perhaps we do hear powerful, biblical sermons but yet not really hear the words nor be impacted enough to let them change our lives or our worlds. We come, we smile, we chat, we go and we walk to our cars feeling like we’ve done our duty to attend and yeah we’ve given God His Sunday time, and possibly our tithe, maybe even our talent but deep inside our hearts are empty, cold ~ and far from the Father, the Sovereign One who longs to have real fellowship with us. What is it we don’t get? What is we don’t understand? We can judge from critical hearts, and call the shots for others putting them in their place, while all the while our own problem goes undetected and unnoticed by our own heart. Our own selfish, spiritual blindness is our downfall and our spiral downward.
Hope and Healing In Hard Places 