It is amazing the amount of conflict and misunderstanding that is brought on by perception. In recent years I have seen this in great amounts as social media and texting have become our primary forms of communication. Since you cannot gather tone, intention, or inflection through either of these two means of communication, a lot of those gaps are filled through perception. For example, depending on the day you have had, the situations that have occurred, or past issues you have endured, you can perceive a message or post as completely different than the author intended. We can create an entire narrative in our heads that has no validity to it at all and share that incorrect narrative with others. Perception can kill relationships, hinder progress, and create unnecessary drama.
Unfortunately, this has been occurring since biblical times. In Numbers, Moses chose individuals to go into the Promised Land as scouts. The Lord had wanted them to go and explore the land because He was going to give it to the Israelites. The Bible tells us that they found clusters of grapes that were so large it took two men to carry them on a pole between them. They explored the land for forty days before they returned to give their report to Moses and Aaron. It is amazing to see the differences in their report. All the men agreed that the land was bountiful and full of all sorts of fruits and was flowing with milk and honey. Caleb was ready to go and enter the land, describing all the amazing amenities. Everyone else, on the other hand, focused on the negatives of the land.
Such Debbie Downers. These people had been rescued from slavery by plagues and crossing the Red Sea. Then they had lived off manna that God sent down from heaven every night for 40 years. Instead of going into this land with the confidence of the God they served, they focused on the circumstances around them. And of course, they could not keep their perception to themselves as they spread their thoughts to all of the Israelites.
“But the people living there are powerful, and their towns are large and fortified. We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak!” Numbers 13:28
“But Caleb tried to quiet the people as they stood before Moses. ‘Let’s go at once to take the land,’ he said. ‘We can certainly conquer it.’” Numbers 13:30
“But the other men who had explored the land with him disagreed. ‘We can’t go up against them! They are stronger than we are!’ So they spread this bad report about the land among the Israelites, ‘The land we traveled through and explored will devour anyone who goes to live there. All the people we saw were huge. We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak. Next to them we felt like grasshoppers, and that’s what they thought too!’” Numbers 13:32-33
Isn’t this just like us? We use our perception to become reality and then we decide it is our responsibility to tell everyone else the information. These Israelites had left one major component out of the equation and we do too: God. Our perception of a situation greatly changes when we leave God out of it. Let us not be quick to perceive, but rather confront each and every situation with God as the most important component. Our lives would be much less drama-filled and our minds so much more confident.
This blog was written by Amy Carrico: Author of Making Moments Matter Blog
Last Updated on August 22, 2024
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