Do You See What I See?

Have you had your eyes checked lately? Our eyes are an amazing gift from God, capable of distinguishing between millions of colors and degrees of light & darkness. But as good as they are, we can still be fooled by them pretty easily. Take this classic optical illusion picture:

What do you see? An old woman? Or a beautiful young girl? Or both? If you've seen this before, you know it's both. (If you can't see one of them, ask someone to help you.) For me, the most interesting thing is the fact that some people first see the old woman, while others immediately see the young girl.

The reason why this happens is because our eyes aren't just bio-mechanical light receptors similar to a camera. Nope, we have a brain that processes the information and tries to make sense of it, and that's where all the trouble starts. Whenever we look at something, we simultaneously interpret what we're seeing, based on our past learning and experiences. And this built-in bias can be very tough to overcome. (That's why you may have needed help to see the second image above!)

This same principle also operates on a spiritual level, and is probably the most difficult problem we face on the road to becoming (and staying) a "Changeling." Jesus put it this way, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God."

The idea here is pretty simple: If your heart is NOT pure, you will find it very difficult, if not impossible, to see or recognize God. That's because God is infinitely creative and fresh in what He does, but our built-in bias, pre-conceived ideas, and frame of reference cause us to view His latest moves as...well, wrong. Whenever He does something new that we've never seen or heard of before, we tend to immediately reject it, because WE'VE never seen or heard of it before. In other words, we set ourselves up as judge over what is God and what is not.

The Bible is full of examples of people who fell into this trap. The religious leaders of Jesus' day rejected Him as their messiah because they were looking for a military/political leader, and God sent them a spiritual redeemer. In the face of all kinds of awesome miracles--blind eyes opened, paralyzed bodies healed, dead people brought back to life--their stubborn mindset prevented them from seeing God at work through His Son, Jesus. Even His closest friends, His own disciples, struggled to grasp the truth, and didn't really "get it" till He rose from the dead. Peter's prejudice against non-Jews was so strong that God had to put him in a trance to make him understand that it was ok to share the Gospel with everyone, no matter what their background (see Acts 10).

Over the past few hundred years, it's been the same old story. From Martin Luther on, every new thing God did was rejected by those who were part of the previous new thing God did. Here's a fairly recent example: 10 years ago or so there was controversy over the so-called "laughing revival." In some church meetings, people began laughing uncontrollably...some for hours at a time. Predictably there were those who said this couldn't possibly be of God. Their argument was, "How could God be the author of such chaos?"

So the question really ought to be, what should we do when stuff like that happens? How can we know for sure whether it's really from the Lord? Jesus said, "You will know them by their fruits." (Mt. 7:15-20) In other words, we need to ask what are the results of this new thing? It's sad to say, but most of the critics of the laughing revival never bothered to ask the people being touched by it what effect it was having on them. If they had, they would have discovered that these folk were being delivered from depression, healed of painful memories, and generally experiencing a greater closeness to Jesus than ever before. In other words, there was good fruit in it! Clearly God was at work in this unusual situation.

The lesson here is simple: If we want to be ready and stay ready for all the changes God will be bringing to both the Church and the world in the near future, we must allow Him to purify our heart of the old ways and mindsets. We need to stay close to the Lord and know His voice so He can lead us safely through it all. For starters, I recommend praying like David did in Psalm 139...
23 Search me [thoroughly], O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!24 And see if there is any wicked or hurtful way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

I don't want to miss seeing a single thing God is about to do! 'Cause you know what I've discovered? Whenever I happen to notice God doing something, it's because He's actually inviting me to join Him in what He's doing! But that's another subject, for another time...