Perspective

The other day at work two of us were sitting around talking, it was slow, there were no customers. My friend asked me if I was mad? It sort of shocked me. I said, "No, why, am I acting mad?" He said, "Well, you have your arms crossed against your chest." I wasn't mad, I was cold. A good example of why our perceptions are not always right. I'm glad he asked, so I could clear up his misperception. I am not sold on this concept of "body language". What we persceive is not always what someone is trying to communicate, if anything.

We need to be careful about the assumptions we make. Far as I know only God knows for sure what we are trying to communicate and that is because he knows what is on our heart and what we are thinking. God knew the kind of person David was and would develop into, when he sent Samuel to anoint him king. Jesus knew when the Pharisees were mentally disapproving of him. I certainly can't do that, can you?

Another interesting point in these perceptions, is they are often negative. Why is that, have we become such a negative culture that we think of the bad before the good?

I am working at trying to be positive about people and giving them the benefit-of-the-doubt, and with God's help I can improve.

Tunnel vision

The other day at work I went looking for two appliances (I work in an appliance store). They had to be delivered that afternoon. I looked where I had last seen them, not there. I looked in the back room, not there. I crawled over stacks of boxed appliances to see if they were hiding in the background, not there. I did it all again, they had to be there or I would have to talk to a very unhappy customer. In utter dispare I sat down on a stool at the cashier's site and glazed out at the other half of our store, the half with beds and furniture. There sitting in the midst of the recliners were my two appliances. Someone had moved them to make room for new merchandise. They were within 15 feet of where I was looking but tunnel vision precluded me for seeing them. As my heart slowed down after the scare of "losing my appliances", I thought where else has tunnel vision prohibited me from seeing what was right in front of me.

- Other people's needs blocked out by my concentration on only my needs.
- What God is really trying to say filtered by tradition and self-righteousness
- What is unknown but maybe possible hidden by the security and comfort of the known

Lord I pray that your Spirit will open the eyes of my heart in order that I may know the hope to which I have been called, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints and his incomparably great power.