Becoming Different in our Perceptions and Reactions

Perception and reaction. That’s what I write about this week. Perception of self and of others. Reaction to self and to others.

Are religious people those who automatically perceive themselves as being good/forgiven/holy, and practice discernment through which they perceive others as bad/needing-to-be-forgiven/not-quite-as-holy? Perhaps to be religious is to be someone who knows they may be forgiven, but they are lacking in the good/holy department, but being religious means we manage others’ perceptions of us so that others are convinced we have goodness to go along with our forgiven status? How should we see ourselves, and how should we see others?

And how does that influence the way we react to ourselves and to others? Don’t you find that we are a reactive people? Quick to react with judgment, and harshness. Quick to believe the worst in someone else. Shouldn’t something in our religious practice change that?

As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him.

And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when he heard this, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. God and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”          (Matthew 9:9-13)

“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people…’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’” (Jesus in Luke 18:10-3)

Many times every day, during my times of prayer, I use the “Jesus Prayer” (based on Luke 18): “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

Perceiving oneself as “a sinner” is not about guilt, or being hard on oneself, although it could certainly become that. The balancing act is to be gentle with oneself, acknowledging that one is the recipient of the deep and wondrous mercy of a loving God. “Have mercy,” or “be merciful,” is prayed with confidence, not despair, when one knows they are in a reconciled relationship with God, thanks be to Jesus Christ and the ministering presence of the Holy Spirit.

This self-perception, and reaction to oneself, as “a sinner” – if freed from guilt – becomes a source of gentle perception of and reaction to others. We don’t say, “I thank you that I am not like that other person,” but instead we are aware of just how alike are we all. This becomes the foundation from which our perception of others alters to become more kind and compassionate, and we are delivered from knee-jerk reactivity to negatives so that we might approach others from a place of Spirit-inspired peace and Godly love. From a Christ-like place.

Friends, those of us who claim the name Christ are going to have to start letting the Spirit guide us along the paths that make us different… because this world needs to be different, and we’re it!