Traveling years ago, with my husband, I enjoyed the view out my car window. I spotted some cows grazing. Okay, maybe I didn’t actually see them grazing as we passed by. An incurable eye disease called Retinitis Pigmentosa didn’t allow me to see those kinds of details.
Paying Attention
Watching the shadows and shapes pass by still gave me pleasure. Elated at actually identifying something, I spoke my discovery aloud.
After a long silence, he spoke much softer than usual, “There aren’t any cows.”
“There were too,” I replied, each word growing louder and higher. A short discord followed.
In an attempt to calm me, he pulled to the shoulder, and backed up to the spot I made my discovery. Our dialogue helped me realize the way the sun peeked through a clump of trees had made the shadows of the tree tops look like cows. I had been deceived by my own brain. Many things I saw might not be what they appear.
False Information
This shouldn’t surprise me. My brother lived with guilt from a false perception, resulting from a childhood incident. Our family had visited another and my brother attempted to learn how to swing a golf club. Standing too close, this lesson landed me in the ER with a cut nerve, fractured skull, and four stitches in the back of my head.
Later, a series of eye exams and doctors, revealed a cyst on my retina, causing a large blind spot in my vision. The doctor shared a blow to the head might be the cause. Perceiving it was his fault, my brother’s feeling of guilt grew as my eyesight worsened.
My eventual diagnosis of Retinitis Pigmentosa, gave us the truth we all needed to hear. This truth set my brother’s feelings of guilt free. His perception had been wrong, because it was based on incomplete information.
Perception is formed when a stimulus sends a new awareness to us through our sensory processes. It could be real, or not. We shouldn’t be so quick to believe our perceptions. They could be inaccurate.
- A glance verses a stare encompasses varying amounts of stimuli, and different people pay attention to varying details (cows)
- We might hear partial information, or the information given may be incomplete (my brother’s story)
- We might be believing a false assumption from information learned in our past (false teachings)
Perception
In life, we must remember, everyone likes to make themselves look good. To do this, they purposefully add to or take away details to influence your perception. We need to consider this truth to prevent judging others.
* family members appear lazy when they might not have been taught
* someone didn’t call you back so you get angry, when they never heard you
* your boss corrected you because they believed you could do better, but you thought they hated you
* your friend looked angry so you believed they were mad at you when they had just been called a name before you arrived
Not taking time to consider can lead to falsely accusing friends, passing on wrong information, and even give false security. Have you ever trusted a spouse only to learn later, a problem existed? How about perceiving a pastor preached the truth or a babysitter was trustworthy, only to learn the hard way you were wrong?
Leaders Aren’t Exempt
Rarely are our perceptions correct, so take time to think on what you don’t know or may have missed. Even one of the greatest leaders in the Bible named Joshua, had a faulty perception. It’s found in Joshua chapter seven. Leaders aren’t exempt.
After defeating Jericho mightily, Joshua expected an easy victory at Ai. Beaten, Joshua cried out to God. Whining and complaining, He blamed God for losing the battle, before God straightened him out.
The problem was Joshua was unaware some Israelites had disobeyed God by stealing plunder previously. God revealed this to Joshua, then told him how to correct things . . . step by step.
Are we like Joshua, unaware of what really goes on in our country behind the scenes? Do we know the hearts of politicians trying to persuade us to vote for them? We need to follow Joshua’s example taking our complaints to the Lord. Then we need to ask Him to reveal the truth and seek His perfect will.
Yes, we can gain better information from the ivoterguide than from campaign ads and media. However, prayer is where the real truth can be revealed.
Remember, politicians are humans with the same faulty perceptions we have, whether from false teachings, incomplete information, or not seeing the whole picture.
God is the “Revealer of Truth,” so we must do our best to rely on Him for every aspect of our life, especially matters impacting more people.
© 2023, Jena Fellers. All rights reserved.
Leave a Reply