“Not another reunion, Ross!”
I happened to mention to my son-in-law that I am going to London this Monday for our annual Catz economists reunion. As it happened I attended my annual school class reunion just two weeks ago, something I organise each year at the Royal Hotel in Waterloo.
Clearly my daughter’s long-suffering husband thinks I spend most of my life going to various reunions. It’s how I live my life – that’s his perception. The reality, you will be pleased to know, is very different.
The reality is that I go to just two reunions each year, except every ten years when there is a third - our college year-group. Two a year – that hardly makes me a compulsive reunion-goer!
But that is usually the case, that our perceptions are at variance with reality, what we think to be true as opposed to what is actually the case. Sadly the reality is that we usually live our lives on the basis of our perceptions. As commentator Stephen Colbert observes: “Facts matter not at all. Perception is everything. It's certainty.”
The danger, of course, is that social media and the like reinforces our perceptions and reaffirms our prejudices. Furthermore, we would avoid anything which would challenge our preconceptions.
However, as Christians we need to resolve to live our lives on the truth, rather than what we perceive to be the truth. But this is a battle, particularly within our current culture where feelings are elevated beyond contradiction; we become immune to uncomfortable facts.
So the theologian John Piper can write: “My feelings are not God. God is God. My feelings do not define truth. God’s word defines truth. My feelings are echoes and responses to what my mind perceives. And sometimes - many times - my feelings are out of sync with the truth.”
He continues: “When that happens - and it happens every day in some measure - I try not to bend the truth to justify my imperfect feelings, but rather, I plead with God: ‘Purify my perceptions of your truth and transform my feelings so that they are in sync with the truth.’”
That’s why we need the Holy Spirit to open our eyes to see what God is showing us, not least through scripture. What the apostle Pauls calls the renewing of our minds, to think Christianly.
In fact, I am preaching on this very subject on Sunday, the battle to know God as he is, above all his hesed (Old Testament), his agape (New Testament). That is his steadfast promise-making love, which the apostle Paul teaches is beyond our intellectual grasp. We think it is too good to be true, literally.
So where do we begin? How do we encounter the truth as it is? We begin at the cross of Jesus. Here we allow the Holy Spirit to completely transform our understanding of what is happening as the nails are driven into Jesus’ wrists.
For once we decide to see the cross of Jesus in God’s light, then everything changes, our perception of reality is altogether upended. We become dazzled by God’s love, his free gift of his very self even to those who would disregard him.
So the apostle Paul prays: “And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.”
In fact, it was one of the church fathers, Origen of Alexandria, who wrote in the 3rd century: “For whatever be the knowledge which we are able to obtain of God, either by perception or reflection, we must of necessity believe that he is by many degrees far better than what we perceive him to be.”
Once we are grabbed by God’s love, then our perceptions are radically changed, perceptions of others, of ourselves and our situation.
The apostle Paul writes: “Because of this decision we don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don’t look at him that way anymore.” (2 Corinthians 5:16)
We see with new eyes, so he continues: “Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17)
That, of course, works both ways. How we see others and how we perceive they see us. “When we allow others’ perceptions of us, or even our perceptions of their perceptions, to control how we live, we are enslaved,” writes Max Lucado. “We become entrenched in the ways of this world and do not live as citizens of heaven, which is another kind of Kingdom altogether.”
Furthermore, we refuse to be intimidated by what we see, more precisely by what we think we can see.
Here is a great quote from pastor Gary Keesee: “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. (1 Peter 5:8). That roar can affect your perception of the situation. If you focus on the roar, you will forget who you are in Christ and the promises that are already yours. But, the Word of God does not fail! God does not lie!”
So Jesus speaks to those who would follow him. “If you stick with this, living out what I tell you, you are my disciples for sure. Then you will experience for yourselves the truth, and the truth will free you.”
(John 8:31)
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