Perception is reality

Perception is reality. Just by putting a cheap wine in an expensive bottle we can fool ourselves into thinking its a fine wine. A bad dining experience colors how we perceive all restaurants in that chain. Democrats and Republicans heard very different things in the President's state of the union speech. Perception is reality.

Pascal, the French philosopher, suggested that since we have a choice between believing in God or not believing in God, it's better to believe. If we believe in God, heaven, and hell and we're wrong, we've lost nothing. We just die. But if we reject God and some form of immortality truly exists, things could get really interesting. To further complicate the matter, our perception of heaven and hell colors how we see today.

While I really want there to be something on the other side, the heavy judgmental “I'm in and you're out” stuff many preach gives me the willies. What is there about“judge not that you be not judged” we don't understand? In The Shack there is this really provocative scene in which Sophia (Wisdom) asks Mac to choose which 2 or his 5 children should go to heaven, which three to hell. Mac insists he can't make such a terrible choice because he loves all of his children. To which Sophia replies something to the effect “but that's exactly what you folks demand of God, even though God also loves all of his children.” Which reminds me of the old doggerel “it hardly behooves the best of us to criticize the worse of us...”

Since we can't know for sure what lies on the other side, I'm choosing a third option. I'm choosing to live each day as if this is the only life I will ever live. Knowing that I can't undo the past or control the future, I am choosing to gratefully make the most of each day, embracing each moment, each experience as a gift. I'm choosing to see the beauty that is always around me, doing today what I might otherwise put off for tomorrow, deliberately finding good in others or situations. I am choosing opportunities to “pay it forward” confident that by being positive, thoughtful, compassionate, and forgiving I can make a difference. By choosing to see this world as the only heaven or hell l will ever experience, I am motivated to seek heaven in today.

With bad news bombarding us twenty four seven, it's too easy to ignore the miracles and wonders that shape our days. There is so much goodness, so many ways others help us, even in the worst of times that we simply take for granted. For instance, we who live in Adams County tend to ignore the breathtaking scenery that surrounds us. Even though I am 78 with most of my life behind me, my get up and go getting up and going, wrinkles and sagging body parts defining my appearance, I am choosing to become “like a little child” as Jesus suggested. I am choosing to reawaken that childlike wonder in a blade of grass, a bird song, sun glittering on the snow, the taste and feel of ice cream, the sweetness of music, a grandchild's laughter. My time may be running out, but I'm choosing to live each day with verve and joy gratefully relishing each moment instead of hoping for something better the next time around. You see, perception is reality.

Joyce Shutt is pastor emeritus of the Fairfield Mennonite Church.