Perspective

It is really too bad that we measure others by ourselves. The greatness of a person is more than just something to be compared to. The evil which they do is more than just some ‘worse than or better than’ measurement. Their perceptions in life are just that, theirs and perceptions.

A perception is a viewpoint. A viewpoint is a gathering in of sight and sound and experience in a moment which becomes the bias of all that comes after. It is an informational instant in life upon which other moments are filtered by. It may be right or wrong, correct or flawed, enlightening or imprisoning. Still it is. Being ‘theirs’ it is unique, personal and not able to be fully comprehended or measured by you; or me. For years people have demanded the crucifixion or exoneration of individuals as if in so doing they undo the evil they perceived. Examples might be helpful here, but they will only be generationally biased. So let us pick one that seems to transcend the grandfather versus teenager gap.

 Jesus of Nazareth is such a figure. His appearance on the scene of life approximately two thousand years ago was and is impactful. He claimed or so it is historically recorded, to be God revealed in human form. Those who deny this deny other historical evidences or at least relegate them to their own twisted bias which might well attempt to declare the sun is not shining on the earth. To say a thing is not simply on the basis of a choice to say so, denies the very humanness and nature of our being. Simply stating “I am not sick” will not extend your number of breathes in a body full of cancerous poison. Jesus is either who He claimed to be or a liar; as are you. Yet depending on your bias, your perspective, He is one or the other. When we measure all we know of Him against all we know of us, we determine that He is God, a liar, or something somewhere between.

Where you and He fall on a measuring stick is between the two of you. The fact that you have Him on that stick should be an indication of the merit of His measure or perhaps the limit of your stick. If all He is, can be calculated by your measure, then it is obvious that He cannot be God. If He only has the emotions and capabilities and thoughts that any other man can have then He cannot be more than you and is therefore deemed by your measure a liar. Unless of course you dismiss the record of His claims to be the creator of the universe and the testimonies of the multitude of venerable souls who attest to the same. Which course then begs to understand why you would ascertain ‘any’ record of Him to have any validity? Nonetheless, your bias, your perception is the rock upon which you stand or the sand into which you sink. Whether the highest peak or the smallest stone in a rippling brook in the depth of the valley, it is yours. It is the culmination of your experience and exposure. It is subjective by the depth of thought it has been conceived in. It is more than mere instruction in books and manuals of life. It is the very point at which Eve and Adam told God in the garden “No”. No, you are not the boss of me, No, you are not enough. No, I want to have my own viewpoint. I want to be my own God. Their advice was coming from someone who had tried and failed at that, Lucifer. They failed too.

Your perspective is going to be based to some degree upon the bias of others. Not just any others but those who are closest to you. Beside those whom you respect the most, those whom you detest will likewise have a profound impact on your bias. You do not dwell in a vacuum. As John Donne said “no man is an island unto himself”. All that you do affects someone. Probably the most important question which emanates from that knowledge is “How?”  How do I, how do you impact the perception of those around you? Immediate personal case in point is a family member who appears to so despise something (maybe everything) about me that he disdains any word or proposition from me as contrary to intelligence at any level. Knowing my impact I must consider if I or he would be best served by my maintaining a healthy distance both physically and verbally. It might be far more profitable for me to find someone whom he finds pleasant to his ear and support theirs efforts to endear him to Christ.

That is my viewpoint when it comes to his viewpoint of my viewpoint. The question is not whether I am correct or incorrect in the sight of the Almighty Creator God of the universe. It is rather whether I am to be received as having any validity with the one I desire to influence. My family member’s measuring me by himself allows him at the same moment to both minimize me and elevate himself. The truth or error of the matter of influence is not of consequence in his perspective. In defense of Adam and Eve’s blunder they did not have a valid frame of reference to reject the bias brought unto them by the evil one. Their previous influence was only and totally in the presence of the Holy Lord Jehovah God. They had not known the absence of His person. They had no other viewpoint. And that then brings me back to you.

You being outside of Christ had no real perspective for a relationship with Him other than what you saw in the lives of those you admired and those you rejected. You could look upon others, human beings as yourself, and judge that they had no more merit in their perspective than you had. Certainly you were as witty and intelligent. Your thoughts were easily that you were most likely able to come to a correct decision at your own surmising and if it were necessary to gain the insight of others, you were quite capable of deciding who those inputs should come from. And you would have been quite correct, if you had gathered all which had ever been written about Jesus that you could be sure was true and without error. Had you searched for such a resource you would have discovered it is known as the Holy Bible. You would have needed to come to it with one caveat. It is true. Regardless of any conflict with any teaching or declaration known to man, it is true. Just between you and the author, He is right and you would adjust your perspective to His, then you could. You could make your own choice your own decision, your own untainted relationship with Jesus.

So did you? Did you listen to others who brought you to an understanding of who Jesus is and then choose your relationship based on their perspective?  Or did you believe His Word because He said it is so? In the fourth chapter of the gospel of John, Jesus is recorded as having by His personal words convinced the Samaritan woman at the well of her need for Him. She then went and told others in her village. After they had listened to His teaching they told her “Now we also believe; Not because of the words which you spoke but because we have heard Him for ourselves.” Did you also believed because you have heard His words for yourself? Did you measure yourself by the measure of others or by the One who created all things?