Sensory Perceptions
We are an overtly sensory oriented culture, living vicariously through the experiences of others as well as our own. We base our worldview — as well as our emotional and social balance — off our experiences and perceptions. Across the globe stereotypes litter our languages with single stories.
To the radical Islamist every American is an extension of “The Great Satan,” lacking morality and good judgement. To the American, every turban wearing Arab is a potential terrorist. We’re so afraid of people with accents, that we forget that outside of our own small community we’re the one’s with the accent. Meanwhile, in the midst of all our hasty judgments, we lose the essence of how much beauty can be found in our vast differences.
This misguided human tendency is found in just about every facet of our lives, leading us to debunk claims of the supernatural as spurious, citing the fact that science doesn’t back up such claims, as if to suggest that science is the ultimate arbiter of truth. In truth though, science finds its limitations in the fact that it is itself limited to sensory perceptions: See (observation), smell, hear, and touch (testing). The supernatural however, operates outside of the parameters and limitations of sensory perception.
To suggest that the supernatural is simply a panacea or placebo for the scientifically uninitiated mind is at once both arrogant and small-minded. To reduce our world… nay, our universe to only what we perceive with our physical senses is akin to an ant believing that the house in which it spends its entire existence is the sum total of the world. I wonder what the scientists who propounded the flat earth theory would say if they could observe our world today, especially in light of the confidence with which they expressed their certainty.
While it’s true that our senses help shape our perceptions and perspectives, they are certainly not all that there is. There’s an amazing world that exists beyond our physical perceptions. Heck, there’s a world that exists well beyond beyond the lenses of the largest telescope on earth, and I’m not just talking about the cosmos here. The world I’m talking about requires more than lenses to see it… it requires faith. Consider for instance the following story of a supernatural encounter.
The Bible records, in the book of 2 Kings, the story of the prophet Elisha and his servant, Gehazi, being surrounded by a vast army of the king of Syria numbering around 70,000 men. Understandably, thinking the two of them to be absurdly outnumbered, Gehazi panics and turns to Elisha in abject terror, whereupon Elisha, in an attempt to assuage his fears boldly declares, “Don’t worry, those who are on our side are more than those against us.”
In my minds eye, I imagine Gehazi, looking at Elisha and wondering if the old man was finally going senile, and if so what a most inopportune time it was for that to be happening. Seeing Gehazi’s disbelief etched across his brow, the Scripture declares:
And Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, LORD, so that he may see.” Then the LORD opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hill full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. ~ 2 Kings 6:16
Might I point out that Gehazi wasn’t physically blind. What he saw when God “opened [his] eyes” wasn’t available to his five senses. 20/20 vision could not have permitted him to see what he saw. Neither could his senses of smell, touch, hearing, taste, or sight open up what he now saw.
The “eyes” that were opened were eyes that gave him spiritual sight. The ability to see beyond the natural into a whole new world. My point? If we live our lives ‘seeing’ only the things we perceive with our five senses, we’ll limit our experience to the ordinary and the mundane.
There is only one woman listed in the genealogy of Jesus as recorded in the book of Matthew. The woman? “Rehab the Harlot”! If you read that only with your human senses, you’ll miss the bigger picture, and potentially a real opportunity to make a real difference in your world. Craig Groeschel once said, “Our greatest fear should not be of failing, but of succeeding at what doesn’t matter.”
I for one don’t have enough time left to succeed at what doesn’t matter, so today, if you’re wrestling under the weight of a stereotype that tells a single story of your life, I’ll leave you with this parting thought:
God used (and uses!) people to change the world. People! Not saints or superhumans or geniuses, but people. Crooks, creeps, lovers, and liars — He uses them all. And what they may lack in perfection, God makes up for in love. ~ Max Lucado (No Wonder They Call Him The Savior)
