In my American egocentricity, I find myself the living bullseye of dartboard-shaped experience. Life, frustration, joy, love, hate and bathroom breaks radiate from me in every direction. I turn one way and I see friends. I spin around the other direction to catch a glimpse of hope. Turn one more time and I’m staring regret right in the face. My world’s confines are my limited perceptions.

Naturally, I pay a lot of attention to what my senses tell me. When I drive, I watch for cars and spandex-donning bicycle enthusiasts who ride around in traffic pretending to be cars. I don’t want to run them over, trendy bike people sue. Most of them can afford good lawyers, too. I look for loved ones, listen for their laughs when I can’t see them. “Follow that voice!” Bad smells warn me that there could be something near by that I don’t want to step in. Good smells might lead me to food. One of the first things I’ll notice about the woman I marry is that she’ll be shorter than me. Next, she’ll be hot. Then I’ll talk to her and discover that she’s in love with Jesus.

Unfortunately, too many of us allow our world to stop at our perception. We look around, hoping and dreaming, but seeing nothing to confirm what could be built with that awesome little substance we call faith. Discouragement comes in, and next thing you know, we’re all a bunch of grumpy hoes. We don’t understand that we ourselves are more than we perceive ourselves to be, and that the world is just the same.

Human vision is not all-encompassing. We can only see so much, but just like that same dartboard that has us standing at its center, there are “rings” around us. Each one of these could be said to be a reality that we can’t necessarily perceive. Just think locally, nationally, internationally, and even spiritually. I don’t care how much Fox News you watch, you don’t know everything that’s going on in the world. And even though it’s the news station for the average right-wing Christian, Fox doesn’t cover anything spiritually, but then again, neither does TBN. . .

2Cor 5:17 tells us that as Christians, we live by faith, not by sight. We can’t live by what we see, because too many bad and ugly people would be depressing. The world doesn’t look at that great right now, and sometimes the things we pray for don’t happen right away. Unfortunate, but true. God knew that the world would eventually end up like this, but He still expects us to believe for the best, even if we can’t look for it.