A Different Perspective

One of my all time favorite books is To Kill a Mockingbird, and one of my favorite lines in the book is when Atticus, the father, is trying to get Scout, his daughter, to see things from a different perspective.  He tells her, "You never really understand  a person until you consider things from his point of view--until you climb into his skin and walk around in it."  Perception is a person's reality.  It may not be true reality, but it is their reference point, and it is harder sometime to change perception than to accept reality. 

Growing up I thought that my mother showed favortism to one of my siblings.  In my mind that was reality, and no matter how many times my mother told me it was not true, I did not believe it.  In my perspective, it was reality.  It wasn't until I was an adult with children of my own that I finally saw and understood things from my mother's point of view. 

The Pharises saw Jesus as a threat to everything they had been taught.  It was their perception, but it was not the true reality.  They could not accept that Jesus came to bring them freedom and truth.  It was reality, but their perception clouded their reality.  They did not see the true Messiah that they had been promised when He stood right in front of them.

We live in a world today where it is difficult to see the reality of most things.  We pass ideas, people and culture through the lenses of our perceptions, and when we do that we fail to recognize Truth--God's Truth.  Our culture today wants us to believe that there are no universal truths, but that is contrary to everything that the Bible teaches.  What would our world look like if we put away our perceptions and looked at situations and people honestly and realistically--if we put ourselves in others' shoes for a moment and tried to understand how they see things because how they see things is their reality for that moment. If we did that, maybe there would be more understanding and love in this world, and maybe then we would start working together instead of working against each other. 

I want to make a concerted effort this year to put myself in someone else's shoes before I make a judgment about him/her.  Too often, I judge before seeing things from their perspective.  Hopefully, others will do the same with me before they make a judgment about me.  It really goes back to the Golden Rule:  Do unto others as you would have them do unto you..

Blessings,