Victim of Perception

This mornings start was different then my normal Sunday mornings....  I am normally up and running early...

But today was different....  a different start.

The thing was,  I wasn't upset about it... I was enjoying the different start to my day.   Some days all the same,  alarm,  up and  ready and go.

Sundays tend to be no different...  but shouldn't they be...

This morning I was replaying a conversation I had with someone on Friday.    They were struggling....   This person is strong and use to pushing through the obstacles that life throws her way,  so to hear her and what she was feeling stopped me.   Had me thinking about her today.  Knowing exactly where she was coming from...

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I go to church and I sit in the back on the opposite side as I normally do....  Again the message of perspective continues to be whispered in my heart...   First its a whisper that we are victims of our perception.    We gauge others pain by our experiences.   We don't really listen or ask questions.  We make an immediate decision whether it is listen worthy.   Time worthy.

Jesus didn't walk this way....

My Pastor starts a message on the Great Command,  you know this,  if you have spent any time in church at all, you have heard this scripture....   Jesus replied, "The most important commandment is this: 'Listen, O Israel! The LORD our God is the one and only LORD.  And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.'  The second is equally important: Love your neighbor as yourselt'  No other commandment is greater than these" 

Jesus spoke this to the religious....

My Pastor continues,   he spoke on the Great Commission last week, and if we aren't living out the Great Command,  then how can we live out the Great Commission.

My heart beats fast,  its another message provoking my heart regarding the difference between relationship and religion.   Its a perception issue....

As I am listening my phone vibrates in my hand...  this message comes across...    More than 2000 calls for rescue from the storm Harvey in Houston.      How many more cries come out from individuals facing their own personal storm...  screaming out for a rescue.     How many individuals in this church are screaming out to be heard, to find the rescue.

My Pastor starts talking about Jesus and the Samaritan Woman in John 4.   He had been dealing with the Pharisee (the religious) and was walking to a different town.   He paused at a well, tired from the long walk,  he sent the disciples on to the village to buy food.  He was alone when the Samaritan woman approached the well and He began the exchange.

Jesus approaches us one on one,

He didn't approach her with the crowd.   He knew her storm was very personal,  though everyone knew her story,  He knew her story but His love for us doesn't call us,  she would have never approached Him or responded to HIM if it was called out in the midst.   She was taken off guard by Him merely speaking to her, a Samaritan.

Jesus isn't intimidated by our stories...

I have to pause with that statement,   Jesus is not intimidated by our stories....   Then why are we intimidated by others stories....  By who HE has created them to be....  Who HE created us to be....

The word perception has been on my mind a lot lately....  how we limit ourselves by how we perceive a situation,   how we judge individuals by our limited perception.  How we don't live out our stories because of our perception of ourselves or how someone else will perceive it....  We make a quick judgment whether someone is worth listening too within a sentence of them sharing...  because our perception states we don't have time for this again....

I think the pharisee didn't start out being the religious example,   I think they started in the right place, wanting to please God but because of their limited perception,   who HE truly was  became twisted to them.   It became about the rules and the works pushing relationship to the side....  so much so they had no ability to recognize the one sent to lead them to salvation and freedom.   They became blinded by perception of the situation.  It was what drove them.

I hear my Pastor say "We don't get to choose who deserves Jesus"  the pharisee was guilty of choosing who they felt deserve God.

How often am I guilty of choosing who deserves God,  who deserves Jesus  when I allow my perception of a person or situation to dictate whether I am HIS hands or HIS feet... or simply HIS ear to listen so they know they are heard by HIM.

I am beginning to hate cell phones.... they are a tool....   we dig into them instead of listening to the person standing in front of us...  They are stealing our ability to be quality listeners and they are sharpening our ability to judge by one sided perception of our situation or someone else's situation.   I am guilty of it and I have been the victim of it.   We start out listening but become more interested in what is happening on our phone.    Picking up our phone in the midst of listening sends the signal to that person that what they are saying isn't that important.....   God forgive me for sending that signal to others.....  I am guilty.  


Jesus listens to my cries in multiple,  stuck in repeat,   why don't we give the same....

My Pastor states that we should let Jesus decide who we reach.....    not who we find worthy...

I feel convicted, knowing that I have made the decision multiple times without even asking HIM.  

I have a better understanding of the whisper of victim of perception....    It has been a two way street...

I have no idea how to fix this....  

But HE does.

I recognize that God is dealing with yet one more area of religion in me....   peeling away one more layer.   Answering my prayer of relationship with HIM...  one more step....