Perception part 2
How you perceive things is vitally important. Because even if something is true, if you don't see it, or know it, or believe it to be true... then it's not true FOR YOU. Now don't get me wrong--the truth is the truth. Whether you know it or not. Whether you believe it or not. But I think the best way to describe it is like this: Say you're in a jail cell. And the door is closed. Now, if you perceive the door to be locked, you might just sit there and pout about it. Because you "know" you can't get out through a locked door. The truth is, Jesus unlocked that door. The truth is, we can walk out of that jail cell any old time we choose. But not unless and until we perceive things correctly. Not until we understand what Jesus has done in us, and through us, and as us. The truth HAS made us free and set us free. But it is the truth we KNOW that allows us to enjoy and experience that freedom. One of the main reasons that God gave the people of Israel the Ten Commandments was to teach them how to live. They had been slaves for like 400 years. They knew how to be slaves. And then, all of a sudden, they were free. They could literally do anything they wanted to do. And that was quite the culture shock. So God set down some guidelines. Because, as Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 10:23, "All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not." Basically, "I can do anything, but that doesn't mean I should." As my grandpa always says, "You can do anything you want, as long as you're willing to pay the consequences." So while freedom CAN be abused, it is still better than the alternative. And I'm not saying you should put yourself under the Law. The only way to fall from grace is to put yourself under the Law. "Sinning" doesn't make you fall from grace. Where sin abounds grace much more abounds. When we're on a sin hunt our perception is all screwed up. We're focused on the wrong thing. What we need to be on is a righteousness hunt. Instead of telling people what's wrong with them, we ought to be telling people what's right with them. We ought to be edifying people. Building them up instead of tearing them down. But in that regard we need to perceive PEOPLE in the right way. We need to see people's hearts, instead of just their mistakes. Give people grace to grow. And that doesn't mean enabling people, or letting people use and abuse us. But it also means we need to give people time, and space, to figure stuff out. We're all on this journey of learning and growing. We're all in this together, just trying to figure it all out. So if you see people as "enemies," or as "bad," you're closing doors that might not need to be closed. Some doors DO need to be closed. But we need to perceive things correctly. We need to be able to tell the difference between people who legitimately need our help, and people who are just going to take, take, take without ever showing any progress. You can usually find what you're looking for, whether it's there or not. So why not look for the good things in life? Why not look for love in any and every situation? It's all about love!