She sat on the balcony, reading a novel. She just finished her first year on campus and was home on vacation. She was eighteen, still living with her parents on the third floor of a block of flats.
She looked down and saw the scene. Again. Her neighbors were going out. The man opened the door for the wife to enter the vehicle. She always sat at the back, in the “owner’s corner”, carrying their 6 month old son. The husband slid into the driver’s seat and drove off.
This scene plays out at least twice every week, and it always upsets her. That woman must be a witch! I wonder how she jazzed her husband to turn him into her driver. Wicked Jezebel! Poor man.
She would imagine ways she could help the husband exert his authority and break the evil spell the wife had cast on him…
A decade later, she got married and had a son. Soon, she needed to take her son to the hospital for immunization. Her husband opened the rear door for her to sit with the baby. He got behind the wheel and drove off. Half way to the hospital, she started laughing. She laughed so hard, tears streamed down her eyes. Her husband was worried, he parked the vehicle. “Babe, what is the matter? Are you alright?” She managed to pause and said, “Naaa- I’m ok, I just remembered something that happened over a decade ago and it reminded me of my foolishness!”
Her perception of the incident had changed. As a teenager, the woman who sat in the back seat was a witch. Ten years later, she got wiser.
PERCEPTION.
George is a member of a church in Abuja. His work does not allow him to attend midweek services and occasionally, Sunday services too. So he decided to pre-pay his offerings to the Church- his absence should not hinder his offerings to God. He decided how much he would give as offering at every Church Service, multiplied that by the number of services in a month, then he paid the amount in the bank account of the Church on the first working day of every month.
That done, he would not give any offering during any Service he physically attended. When the offering basket was passed around, he would simply pass it on to the next person (he had already sent his monthly offering to the Church Account).
One Sunday morning, a Church member asked to see him after the service.
“Brother, I notice you don’t give offerings in Church. It is not good to come before the Lord empty handed!” George laughed. “But that is not true. I ALWAYS give offerings!” The other man insisted, “No you don’t! I have been observing you for the past few months. You NEVER give offerings. Don’t lie about it- I’m just counselling you as a concerned brother!”
George wanted to just walk away when the concerned brother was done talking. But he decided to teach him a lesson. He then explained to him how he always pre-paid his offerings to the bank.
Then he asked, “Now that I have told you what you didn’t know, would you still say I don’t give offerings?” The concerned brother laughed. “No! Now I know you give offerings. Your explanation has shed light on it for me!”
George then asked, “But what if I did not explain it to you? You would still be holding on to the opinion that I don’t give offerings. But that would have been a very wrong opinion. I really do not owe you any explanation but I decided to give you full disclosure to deliver you from your ignorance. Now think about it, how many other people do you judge wrongly without full information?”
My late father used to say, “Whatever issue you meet, do not be quick to pass judgement. Always have it at the back of your mind that WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW IS ALWAYS MORE THAN WHAT YOU KNOW.”
Jesus gave a parable in Matthew 13:44. A man saw some treasure in a field. He went to sell all he owned to raise money to buy the field. Imagine for a moment how those who saw him selling off his possessions (probably at giveaway prices) would have been wondering what he was up to. They would have been thinking he was mad. Well, maybe not- let us see what he is up to… He sells his car, clothes, shoes, furniture, and electronics. He raised about 5 million naira and he went to buy a plot of land in the outskirts of Zungeru or Kaura Namoda! The average friend or relation would believe he had been bewitched. Somebody must have jazzed him; they would say. But when they realize he knew there was treasure worth a billion on the property, it would dawn on them they judged him wrongly.
How often do we perceive things wrongly, without knowing it? We all have different opinions about issues. Our perception is basically a function of our age, wisdom, exposure, temperament, bias and upbringing.
And understanding of Scriptures.
Apostle Paul was once involved in a shipwreck. He and the other people on board managed to swim to an island called Malta. The inhabitants of the island welcomed them, built a fire for them to warm themselves as it was cold. The Apostle then gathered some sticks to put in the fire to keep it burning and a snake crawled out of the bundle of sticks and bit him!
Woah!
The inhabitants of Malta saw it and said, “This man MUST be a BAD man! He survived a shipwreck, only to get bitten by a snake! It’s like he’s destined to DIE!”
But Apostle Paul threw the bundle of sticks and the snake into the fire and the Malta folks waited to see him fall dead because of the snake’s venom. When that didn’t happen, they changed their take on the incident: “He MUST be a god!”
Perceptions can change that easily, folks. Especially when things don’t go as expected and when you know better.
Stop judging issues when you have only 20% information. Your opinion will almost always change when your information is 100%.
Shalom,
Haruna Daniels