Seeing what I want
One of the pandemics affecting our nation today is a head and eye disease called “Seeing what I want.” This phrase indicates truth is no longer an absolute reality because perception is set from the central point of one’s reality without checks and balances.
The World of Self Perception
The actual pandemic can be traced through history, beginning with the perception of Cain. He was angry because he felt his brother was Abel to broker a better deal with God. In the world of his time, it was every man for himself. When challenged on this viewpoint by heaven’s all-knowing Psychiatrist, Cain asked, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” His Doctor warned, “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.” (Genesis 4:1-10)
There are many people around us today, just like Cain. They see things from their own vantage point, and even worse, with an attitude that they are never wrong and must always come out on top. These individuals blame society for their own short comings, and do not realize that if they only put work together with discipline, they could be successful. President Ronald Reagan once said of people like this, “We must reject the idea that every time the law’s broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions.”
The World of Self Desire
It is like what happened in the days of Noah, when the world you young, and “the earth was corrupt … and was full of violence.” Each man would do what he wanted, and what felt good and pleasing in his own eyes. Old men like Methuselah, and the preacher Noah attempted to tell people their actions were not good, the world considered their opinions old fashioned.
Individuals who considered the words of Methuselah and Noah looked around, and saw their words and actions were no worse than anyone else’s, and perhaps better. The mentality of the crowd proved these preachers weak. Mankind felt the world had moved beyond its need for God, and that each person had a spark of God and measured the world through his own perception of reality.
Don Miguel Ruiz, a physician and public speaker that found his life changed after an automobile accident observed, “We only see what we want to see; we only hear what we want to hear. Our belief system is just like a mirror that only shows us what we believe.” Each individual needs to crawl away from the center of their own universe in order to observe their personal actions (and those of their friends) through a different lens.
Lao Tzu (which translates as “Old Master”) used to tell people, “Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.” The problem Methuselah and Noah often called out in people was that mankind had turned selfish and mean. The language of cursing was upon people’s breath (listen around, what do you hear today?). When was the last time you crawled out of your world to observe? Don Miguel Ruiz wrote, “The body speaks its own language. It tells secrets that the mind is unwilling to disclose. Our moods and gestures deliver messages in spite of us, and they often speak more eloquently than words.”
The World that grasped for More
In time, technology of new inventions made the world a better place. Agricultural and other enterprises began to produce in abundance, and people were better off than at any time since the world had begun, but they were not happy. A horrible pandemic of head and eye disease began to spread through a prosperous nation, for the people were not happy with their lifestyle, each person wanted more. As in the days of Cain, they would cut off family in order to advance their personal position in life. No one would help a neighbor, unless this associate brought something to the table. People were not kind.
At just this time, a strong and famous man arose from the business word that promised them heaven. The people saw gold, larger homes, ease in life and freedom from worry. In mass, the crowd followed the great man who went by the name “Nimrod,” a hunter who had reputedly achieved great success by his own abilities, and he offered the nation a promise he would also make them great.
This man, who shined of gold from his hair to his possessions, promised his innovations would help them achieve heaven and the status of gods. The people followed, and Nimrod said, “I will build a great tower – and nobody builds towers better than me, believe me – and I’ll build it very inexpensively. I will build a great, great tower that reaches to heaven, and I will make the leader up there pay for my tower. Mark my words!” So the people began a tower that would elevate them to the place that their Messiah could trumpet his name for all of heaven and earth to observe and claim the greatest throne of all existence.
The World that bullied to win
But as the man built, his works began to crumble. As problems began to be reported, and inspectors called them out, the king proclaimed, “Fake news is at an all time high. Where is their apology to me for all the incorrect stories?” As technicians began to see cracks He called them out as fakes, frauds, and “very disloyal” to him. The most magnificent Elect proclaimed, “My IQ is one of the highest – and you all know it! Please don’t feel so stupid or insecure; it’s not your fault.”
He told the populace, “No leader has ever been as persecuted as me!” The Commander in Chief announced in conference, “I value loyalty above everything else – more than brains, more than drive and more than energy.” Nimrod began to hunt down his prey and to drain his own swamp, but the reality of self as the center of the universe can never win.
As the Hunter fought for power to build his tower, some tears in his structure became problematic. The populace, who suffered from the pandemic, saw only what they wanted to see and believe. Every sense of truth and reality had been erased. These men and women blindly followed their great king, proclaiming how they and their God would always fight for what they had been told was right.
But they did not win. The Ruler of the Universe had enough. Angels were sent to destroy the works of the tower, leaving behind rubble, confusion in speech and a bunch of rubbish. How can people protect themselves from being babbling idiots? Harvey Fierstein, a playwright and, actor and political commentator gave the line, “Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one’s definition of your life; define yourself.”
There is a call in our world today to open our eyes and observe. Don’t just follow the crowd, look and listen. What is being said, and how are cultic followers behaving? Bernard Meltzer, the radio host of a program called, “What’s Your Problem?” advised people, “Before you speak ask yourself it what you are going to say is true, is kind, is necessary, is helpful. If the answer is no, maybe what you are about to say should be left unsaid.”
Deciding to be different
For the world in the midst of pandemic, there is hope because there is God. King David called this world out by stating, “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good.” (Ps 114:1) Helen Keller, who could not see with her eyes, explained by saying, “The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched – they must be felt with the heart. ” We do not have to suffer with the head and eye disease called “Seeing what I want.”
My first book, Spring: Connecting With God, was written to trace the observance of Passover. During my writing and in subsequent reading, I found God placed in that book a truth we all need to hear. Across the years the faith community has at times (like in today’s world) has been swayed by the world. The author of Judges repeats the phrase, “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes,” (Judges 17:6; 18:1; 21:25; Dt 12:8) in order to warn us of impending trouble. I document the unfolding cycle from the head and eye disease called “Seeing what I want” in my book.
The problem does not need to become debilitating. History provides many great examples of people who live beyond the fallacies and whims which plague so many humans. Each of us needs to learn from the examples of people who are looking for facts, who question and inspect the path of life in order to find truth from God that is founded in reality. The Bible highlights these people who are different, who overlooked the things that blinds most of humanity, and who blaze a path of so others can follow.
Who are some people that blazed the path? Enoch “walked with God.” Noah “was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time.” Job “feared God and shunned evil.” Abraham, who left the world of desires and polytheism “believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.” And there are many others.
What sets people apart so they seem immune to the head and eye disease called “Seeing what I want.” Aristotle said, “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” We must vaccinate ourselves by seeking truth, observing reality, and setting boundaries so we don’t fall into the snares which beset most of humanity.
And we must go above, as Mahatma Gandhi once told us, “Be the change you want to see in the world.”
