Reflections on and Prayer for Our Perceptions, Our Judgements, and Reality..... One day at the beach, I was amazed to see a huge bundle of seaweed, bobbing up and down in the waves. In the shape of a large treasure chest, the seaweed finally tumbled to shore a couple of hundred feet away. After making my way along with other inquiring minds, to the seaweed chest, we all wondered how to open it and what it contained. Intrigued about the contents of the chest and if it could possibly be full of treasure from an ancient sunken boat in the Gulf, everyone standing around spontaneously were sharing their ideas, when the beach police arrived.... The police immediately took charge and pulled out a plug of the seaweed.... They dried it, lighted it and the smell of its smoke solved the mystery.....It was weed alright, the type of weed that sells for lots of money..Wed witnessed not a chest, but a misshapen bale of marijuana come ashore. Some were disappointed and wished it had been a treasure chest... Some were angered that the beach had been littered... Some people found it all very amusing... Some found troublesome this evidence of off-shore drug trafficking. Some laughed and said under their breath, they wished the bale had washed ashore at night so they could have taken undiscovered, what they wanted of the treasure,... Some wanted the police to probe deeper to see if under the marijuana there was in fact, a real treasure chest. Others saw what a wonderful story it all was... Still others wanted to figure out how long the bale had been adrift, what the currents were, and and if its owners might be found through their calculations. Some were waiting for newspaper reporters to arrive so theyd have their picture in the paper. So many reminders came from that little experience... The first was to confirm the truth that things really arent always what they seem if we project and accept as real, our own perceptions of those things. Another reminder was that depending on who one is, the things that come ashore in ones life, are usually first-viewed and dealt with according to ones preconceived perception and values. What does this all mean to a person of faith? It means that our judgements of ourselves and others are issued from a naturally biased perception of reality. However, a spiritually open individual who knows this, is more interested in allowing the truth to unfold than in imposing their first-blush judgements on a situation or person. To be a person this open and discerning of the truth, is essentially a spiritual practice, and is best developed when prayed for as well as practiced. If this isnt done, our lifetime is spent interpreting life solely through the lens of our own perceptions, fears and desires. I miserably failed in this spiritual practice this past week, when the ego very inaccurately judged someone and the situation .. I was seated next to a nice lady and her husband at a large group dinner at a conference, when I noticed she was looking at me in such a strange manner... In a fixated stare at me while I was talking, she seemed to be focused intently on every word I said. She seemed disturbed about what she was hearing. In fact, she seemed irritated and whispered to her husband that she had to leave... I had never seen her before,...and was anxious that shed left because of something Id said. In my anxiety I had forgotten to follow my breath and cling to the fact that I had been speaking from love, that I am not in charge of outcomes, and that God will use all situations. After she left, her husband said to me that his wife extended her apologies for leaving so abruptly. He explained she had suddenly lost her hearing last year and had recently undergone a cochlear implant to which she was adjusting... She was learning to read lips and had just now been overcome at the table by the noise level in the large echoey dinning room. Lord, we so often do not know the rest of the story but you do.... and your love by-passes our distorted lens to show us divine reality... Let us be kind and forgiving to ourselves and to others.. for we must rely on you for the rest of the story...and upon you for what to do with it. In your name, Amen
Posted on: Mon, 01 Sep 2014 16:04:49 +0000
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