Our brains our engineered to focus only on what we need to see. With an infinite number of things to notice, we’ve become adept at perceiving only the most important. It’s essential that we do so, otherwise, our brains would be flooded with an abundance of meaningless information. But can our powers of focus be used against us? What if what we are searching for is not what we were expecting? How will we be able to find what it is we aren’t looking for?
Selective Attention Test
Researchers Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris have spent a couple of decades researching a form of invisibility called inattentional blindness. They suggest that the most effective cloaking device is the human mind. In order to demonstrate just how blind we humans can be they developed a simple experiment. They asked people to watch a video of three basketball players passing the ball to one another and to count how many times the players in white shirts passed the ball. In the middle of the video a woman in a gorilla costume appears, does a little dance, then walks off-screen. Half the people watching never saw the gorilla. Daniel Simons says…
How could they miss something right before their eyes? This form of invisibility depends not on the limits of the eye, but on the limits of the mind. We consciously see only a small subset of our visual world, and when our attention is focused on one thing, we fail to notice other, unexpected things around us—including those we might want to see.
Daniel Simons
If the mind can turn a blind eye to things we can visibly see, how much more so do we miss what God might be trying to reveal to us spiritually?
Seeing Jesus
Jesus was not what the nation of Israel was expecting. They were looking for a king, a conqueror, a national hero. Of course, Jesus is all of those things, but they missed it. Jesus laments this in Matthew’s Gospel.
For the hearts of these people are hardened,
Matthew 13:15
and their ears cannot hear,
and they have closed their eyes—
so their eyes cannot see,
and their ears cannot hear,
and their hearts cannot understand
Who can blame them. The messiah was supposed to be the Son of David, the heir of a great king. He was supposed to set the people free and bring them into their manifest destiny as the blessed nation of God. How could they possibly see something so big when they were looking for something so small?
Seeing what God sees
We make it a habit of boxing God in. We choose to see the details of God’s plan through the lens of our own selfish desires. How does this affect me? Where do I fit in? What is this going to cost me?
For example, I recently spent a great deal of time on sabbatical (six weeks) contemplating my role as the lead pastor at Westside Church. It was very natural for me to look at it subjectively. I spent a great deal of time analyzing all of the questions above. What’s in it for me? This is what I wanted God to show me. I grew frustrated realizing that God wasn’t interested in revealing the answers to these questions. I needed to ask different questions. It turns out God’s plan for my life is a lot bigger than my plan. Once again, I boxed God in. It’s not about what’s in it for me. It’s about what God wants to do through me.
It’s a mind blowing experience when God reveals something previously invisible. How could I have missed the big dancing gorilla in the room?
What about you? What problems are you analyzing through the narrow perspective of “what’s in it for me?” How might you be missing the big dancing gorilla because you are asking the wrong questions? Maybe perception starts with the humble confession that we are often blind to what’s right in front of us. Fortunately, this blindness has a cure. If you are blind, there is a healer. His name is Jesus.
Here’s my prayer. God help me see what you want me to see. Open up my eyes, surround me with your light, so that what was previously darkness to me is made visible. You are in the business of healing the blind. Heal me.