Reflection
We all view events through a particular perspective. We use the context within which of the lens within we have lived our lives. It has been constructed by family, education, social conditioning, religious beliefs, and myriads of other factors. Like all lenses, it can become cloudy or unfocused. Unless we cultivate open minds and incorporate new information, our set focus may cause us to miss dangerous societal signs and warnings, or opportunities for positive change and a better future. If we are stuck in a one directional view, we can miss vital events around us. It is openness to hear and evaluate the perspectives of others that saves us from the danger of a focused view that accepts only our own perspective as true.
Prayer
Lord that I may see.
Luke 18:41
Action
Do you find yourself closed to anything that may challenge your beliefs? Are you open to other viewpoints? Can you be objective about new information that may push your thinking in a different direction? How can you discuss issues in a way that will inform and not be confrontational? How can you free yourself from the “us and them” mentality?
Suggested Reading
Once more Jesus put His hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.
Mark 8:25
Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
Isaiah 43:18-19
It is a closed way of thinking that is not open to dialogue, to the possibility that there is something else, the possibility that God speaks to us, tells us about His journey, as he did to the prophets.
Pope Francis
We are in trouble just now because we do not have a good story. We are in between stories. The old story, the account of how we fit into it, is no longer effective. Yet we have not learned the new story.
Thomas Berry
Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won’t come in.
Isaac Asimov
We cannot see what is “out there” merely by looking around. Everything depends on the lenses through which we view the world. By putting on new lenses, we can see things that would otherwise remain invisible.
Parker J. Palmer
The thing is, it’s very dangerous to have a fixed idea. A person with a fixed idea will always find some way of convincing himself in the end that he is right.
Atle Selberg
They are ill discoverers that think there is no land when they can see nothing but sea.
Francis Bacon
Until the mind is open, the heart stays closed. The open mind is the key to the open heart.
Byron Katie