"You don't know what you think you know." Think a moment and let that statement sink in.
There is always more than what we can ever know in the way people are, act and what we hear them say.
As a teacher, I learned that the "troubled student" was not a bad person but a hungry person. They came to school hungry everyday and their hunger came out in poor grades and unacceptable behavior. What about the person sitting on an exit ramp with a sign asking for money to feed their family? Is it possible that they are scamming you? Absolutely! But what if this is the parent of the student who comes to school hungry? The way people dress, act and live are often not indicators of who they are. We just do not know their heart.
After church do you go together at lunch to gossip about Mrs. Smith's outfit, the music you did not like, the way the pastor preaches, the moving of a pew or about something else that isn't the way you think it should be? Do you have a full understanding of what you are talking/gossiping about or is it all about you? Maybe we should go to lunch and challenge one another with the difficult discussion of the scripture and sermon we just heard. Or perhaps how the music did not necessarily move your soul, but did you hear Mrs. Smith talk about how the Holy Spirit moved her soul through the same song you did not care for?
Have you ever said something intended one way and it was interpreted in another? Boy have I done that and have spent a lot of time trying to fix it or even suffering through the consequences. What is said and what is heard are often not the same. We base it on our previous experience and the data of their past and the data we base our response and assumptions has changed.
My data has changed. In my life I know I have made huge mistakes, read yesterday's morning view as a reference! I own those mistakes but am not choosing to allow the mistakes control my life anymore. Yes I cannot change the past, but I can change moving forward. But I am absolutely different from who I was 6 months ago. In fact, I am absolutely different today from who I was last week. For that I praise God! Am I "all better?" Nope, but will I ever be? Not until I reach perfection in love!
Well, PB, how do you expect me to believe you are different? First, I am trying to allow the fruits of change be seen. Second, my answer to this is, God. God is a God of miracles and I think we gossip, complain, and judge others so much that we forget about the word transformation and how God can and does immediately change our hearts. We live in the real data from the past which clouds the data of the now. Change is a process, but we forget about the miracles of transformation. Another part of my answer is that when we see and experience how someone was, it is difficult to believe in the change and then to allow them to transform. After all, there is no way that they can change so quickly.
Well, let me share a story with you. One of the most highly revered authors of the New Testament is a man named Paul. Well, his name was Saul before his experience with God on the Damascus road. Saul persecuted Christians, even to death. In fact, he was on his way to arrest Christians to have them killed. God struck him down on the road to Damascus and blinded him. God sent a believer in Damascus named Ananias to witness to Saul. Ananias was afraid to go because he only understood the data he had about Saul. But God said go, so he went.
“But the Lord said, “Go, for Saul is my chosen instrument to take my message to the Gentiles and to kings, as well as to the people of Israel. And I will show him how much he must suffer for my name’s sake. So Ananias went and found Saul. He laid his hands on him and said, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road, has sent me so that you might regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit. Instantly something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he got up and was baptized. Afterward he ate some food and regained his strength.” - Acts 9:15-19 NLT
Ananias didn't know what he thought he knew. He heard all of the gossip at lunch after church about Saul, so he absolutely knew what to expect based on his recent past. Had Ananias acted on his data, Saul would have never became Paul and become the servant of the Lord to take the message to Gentiles and kings.
So what about us? Stop judging the surface. Stop living in the past. Believe in the change. Understand the rest of the data. Welcome and embrace the Paul's in our lives because they are not Saul anymore!
Peace,
PB
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