There was a time when I really needed to hear from God; for me, hearing from God can be difficult. Oftentimes, as I try to comprehend what God is saying, I have to sort through the voices considering is this God speaking, the devil or me? Many people suggest fasting as a channel for hearing God’s voice. Not being one to fast, I decided that fasting was my only hope. At the end of the experience, I clearly heard God saying, “Perception is everything.”
Have you heard of the glass “half full vs. half empty” concept? In short, seeing the glass half full makes you an optimist, whereas seeing the glass half empty makes you a pessimist. Frankly, I see the glass half empty so with much effort, I have to try to minimize this natural tendency. Again, during my fast, God reminded me “perception is everything.”
Examine the following scenarios:
Scenario 1
Kate just had surgery and after the Morphine kicked in, the piercing pain subsided. She considered how horrible the pain was! How am I going to get through this ordeal over the next month? No doubt, I am going to be bored, and rehabilitation is going to be awful. Even worse, I hate relying on other people? Mama is going to cook for me though; I going to have to get use to turkey bacon, egg substitute, smoothies, baked meats and bottled water.
Scenario 2
Kate just had surgery and after the Morphine kicked in, the piercing pain subsided. She thought, thank God for Morphine! What am I going to do with myself over the next month? Well, I can watch all of my shows and when I feel better, I will have time to put some flowers in my container pots. Better yet, I can cultivate my friendships. Even more, now that I will be off for a few weeks, I can focus on a plan for loosing weight. Mama will be cooking for me her healthy diet of turkey bacon, egg substitute, smoothies, baked meats. My arteries will be singing “hallelujah.”
What scenario represents seeing the glass half empty way of thinking? Which one coincides with seeing the glass the half full approach? Consider this real life situation. As a teacher, I realized that approximately 65 to 70 percent of my students were good. Regardless of the school year, these students focused on completing their work, are active in extra curricular activities, and are rarely disrespectful. However, teachers focused on the kids with learning disabilities or those with behavioral problems. So, our thinking was that of the struggle, not how effortless it was to teach the majority of the children.
Now that we are considering perception, I can share what I woke up thinking today. Thinking about the world, I wondered if our perception of the world is flawed. Do we look at our world using the glass half empty approach? Consider the news. For some reason, we choose to search for the dim, dark and dangerous. Don’t get me wrong those things are real, but what if we chose to chase the positive things going on in the world. Could it be that there is 80 percent of good in the world and 20 percent bad? Could it be that our perception is skewed? I will end repeating a story I wrote about in another entry. After being robbed, God told me not to talk about the robber and how terrifying he was, his black attire or the gun with the silencer. God said to tell people how He brought me out of the ordeal without a scratch. God emphasized how I didn’t lose a dime. That was my first spiritual lesson on focusing on what God is doing and not what satan is doing.