Perceptions of Reality and Character

2Pac_002
Originally uploaded by andebos.

This afternoon I popped in the Tupac Resurrection DVD when a random thought occured to me. Our perceptions of people and character are often developed not by the person but by the statements, opinions, and situaions around that person.

In bible study, and on the trip to Boston, we discussed ideas about tainting...or for better words - giving a bad impression of the character of God. Now, one person at the study made the comment, I think it is a little arrogant to assume we could, in any method, taint the character of God. I am in total agreement. There is nothing we can do to taint God's character, He is and will always be, secure in His identity and name. On the other end though, I do believe we can give a false representation of His character. I see this in every day life all the time. People represent, speak of, and act about people in their life daily. Celebrities are a prime example. We define many celebrities based on the perceptions and attitudes of people who comment on them. As a christian culture we are well aware of the damage we do in representing Christ. I suppose I want to basically make this statement. Don't judge a book based on other books printed to, similairly, represent the original. Because, they will never, ever, be the original itself. I fear that we make too many assumptions of people based on our perceptions of them - as opposed to the reality of who they really are in themself and their identity. Consequently, this rises all the way to the top of the ladder. With Christ, I think we have a representation of Him through people we feel are representing Him. We assume they are an identical, maybe not consciously, but I think at some level of belief and thought. For example, the child whose father calls him retard, lazy, fat, ugly, and beats him down physically as well. Though in age this person may consider their father far from God - there is an inherent view and desire of love from this parent...and on some level of thought - this father represented God. No wonder the child, now an adult, has problems wanting to worship a God everyone else calls father. I feal that we are too quick to trust our perceptions and not investigate our realities of the people and Christ among us.