Is this a rotting tree to be thrown on a burn pile or a piece of driftwood to be used as art? Perception changes everything.
I was recently working with a little boy with autism. One of his teachers shared with me that when an adult asks him in a normal voice to do some task like writing his name on his paper, or to stop doing some task, he perceives it as yelling. It was an amazing revelation for me. I’ve worked in that school long enough to know for a fact, that no adult has yelled at this little boy.
But, the bottom line is that he perceives regular commands as yelling. His perception changes everything. The next time I worked with him, I approached his desk, squatted down and got eyeball to eyeball with him and lowered my voice a few decibels, when I had a request for him. My approach changed everything.
He was much more cooperative when he believed that I wasn’t yelling at him. Sure, it was a little more effort on my part, but I had a lot of empathy for the little guy. He can’t help how he perceives the world around him. A slight change for me, made a big difference for him.
My experience with that little boy really made me think about what a huge impact our perception of events, has on our lives. How we perceive the actions and attitudes of others and how others perceive ours, affects all of our relationships, from those within our families, to those with friends, to those with coworkers and bosses.
On an even larger scale, how the world perceives us as Christians, can influence people to seek Jesus for themselves or to have nothing to do with him. It’s a big responsibility that all Christians have, but one that we often give very little thought.
Think about it a minute. When we run into the grocery store after church service, wearing our church clothes, we come across many people who obviously didn’t attend a worship service, but they can tell we did by how we are dressed. How are we treating our children? Are we yelling? Are we snapping at our spouse? Do we smile at strangers in the produce section? Are we rude to the cashier?
It all seems so simple and kind of silly; yet the world watches our actions. How do they look to a non-believer?
Do we drive around with a Christian fish on our car and cut someone off in traffic or blare the horn at the red light? Sure, we might just be having a bad day, but the perception of the driver behind us can make all the difference.
God cared so much about human perception of His love for us, that He sent us His son. He gave humanity laws to follow, to keep us safe and in communion with Him. We failed miserably at following them, time and time again. We somehow perceived Him as distant. He didn’t understand what it was like to be human.
He loves us deeply, so He became human. Jesus was born a human, just like the rest of us. So, when we pray and reach out to Jesus in pain, fear, loneliness and frustration. He gets it. He was one of us. He also gets the good stuff like love, joy, peace and happiness. He was willing to die for us so we could walk with him forever.
If God cares that much about perception, perhaps as followers, we should too. Just a thought.
Have an awesome day!
Wendy 🙂