Perception part 3
I think, to some degree, all of us have a perception problem. Not too long ago I Ranted about the blind spot. About how we all have things in our lives--be it people, or behavior, what have you--that we don't see correctly, or judge correctly. And don't get me started about how we're not "supposed" to judge. We judge things all day every day. Jesus didn't tell us not to judge. He told us to be careful HOW we judge. To not judge by appearance, but to judge by righteous judgment. But I digress. Today I want to talk about Mark 8:15-17. "And he charged them, saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod. And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have no bread. And when Jesus knew it, he saith unto them, Why reason ye, because ye have no bread? perceive ye not yet, neither understand? have ye your heart hardened?" Jesus was talking about something. But, as usual, His disciples didn't get it. Jesus's hand picked group never had any idea what He was talking about. They couldn't pick up what He was laying down. Not because they had necessarily hardened their hearts, but because their perception was off. They were focused on the wrong thing. Jesus was talking about leaven, in the sense of doctrine. In the sense of what the Pharisees and Herod were all about. And the best the disciples could come up with was, "He's talking about bread because we don't have any." Turning the spotlight on themselves and what they lacked. That's what we do a lot of the time. We take things that aren't about us and we make it about us. And we make it about ourselves in the worst way possible. We don't listen to understand. We listen to respond. Like we're just waiting for our turn to talk about ourselves. We have a perception problem. We see things through the lens of our own understanding. It's so hard to see past ourselves. To truly just focus on others. But it's so important to learn how to do that. And, as always, we learn how to love by learning how God loves us. We learn how to see past ourselves, to truly see other people, by learning how God sees us. When you know that your God has supplied all your need, according to His riches in glory, then you don't need to focus on your need. Because it's taken care of. It's covered. YOU'RE covered. I have no lack because my God has no lack. So I don't need to make everything about me. If you're telling me something, I can listen to it in the manner and measure that YOU mean it. I can get out of my own head and pick up what you're laying down. I think it's called empathy--seeing things from someone else's point of view. And it's so important. How we perceive things--how we perceive ourselves and each other--is so vitally important. Because we're all connected. We're all in this together. We can't afford to be selfish or self-centered. There's a more excellent way. And His name is Jesus. His name is love. When we focus on Him we get out of ourselves and into each other. That's connection. Relationship. Love!