…In Amos 8:2 the Lord asks Amos the prophet, “What seest thou?” The prophet replies, “A basket of summer fruit.” The natural harvest marked the end of the crop. The Lord was showing Amos that Israel had come to a time of judgement because of their disobedience.

Does God ever prompt us by asking, “What do you see?” It is interesting that people who experience the same event or happenings in life come away from that experience with different viewpoints.

Members of the same congregation or Brotherhood can have widely differing understandings of the spiritual direction and spiritual health of their brothers and sisters as a group. One member may feel encouraged and hopeful, another might feel discouraged and fearful.

Siblings raised in the same home with approximately the same experiences sometimes have totally different perspectives of that part of their life.

We never live entirely in the present moment. Our past shapes our present. Life is a journey. There has been a path that brought us to the present moment. The journey has shaped who we are today.

Emotional experiences of the past have a powerful impact in shaping who we are today and how we view life. When the early church was introduced to Paul, they were afraid. All they knew was Saul, the cruel persecutor. There was a new reality that they did not yet perceive. Paul had met Jesus and he was a new person, but some apparently struggled at first to accept this new reality.

This would suggest that there is always a reality around us that we do not yet understand or perceive.

What happens when people who experience life closely with each other, such as in families or churches or in the workplace, do not have the same understanding of what is true?

These disagreements about what is true can range from such things as views on Bible prophecy, views of health issues such as vaccinations or alternative health methods to evaluations of the integrity and character of individuals.

It is easy to observe the intensity of emotion people invest in their understanding of what is truth in any given matter. Because there is a such a heavy emotional investment, relationships can become strained when differing views of truth become evident.

So, does God ever speak to our spirit with the question, “What do you see”?  Is it possible that at times we become so invested in our “reality” and our understanding of truth we do not care to listen to any other perspective, even God’s?

The prophet Zechariah has this to say in chapter 7 verse 11 – “But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped the ears, that they should not hear.”

We wonder, why would God’s people choose to be ignorant? Why wouldn’t they want to hear what God would speak to them? Isn’t “stopping the ears” before God the height of arrogance and obstinance?

Are we any different? Have we ever been so emotionally invested in an opinion we wouldn’t listen to others even when we knew we might be wrong? We refused to “see” any other perspective. Pride is a powerful emotion. It can destroy us or at the least weaken us.

Part of maturing is seeing life different than we did before. Do you remember how you saw life as a teenager? How did you view your parents? How did you “see” the church or the leaders in the church?

Would it not be reasonable to think that even if we have journeyed down the road to our 50’s or 60’s or even beyond in age that we most likely have some understandings and viewpoints that need to change.

It is true that as we grow older and mature in Christ the number of places we are not seeing what God sees should be decreasing. Yet, how many times have we witnessed seasoned individuals who lost the respect of their peers simply because they “stopped their ears” and refused to hear truth.

One conflict counselor has noted that many conflicts are just simply differing visions of the future. People who have connections in life  cannot agree what the future should look like.

In the setting of the church, isn’t this often true? Different members have a different vision on what the church should look like tomorrow. Is it ok for some markers of “plainness” go away or would that be unfaithfulness? Is it appropriate to consider other headship covering styles? What are acceptable standards for entertainment? And so the differing visions become apparent. Painful conflicts and division are born because of differing visions.

Where is God in this struggle? Do we really want to hear what He might speak to us? Or is our emotional investment in our vision too strong to listen to any other voice? Or do we sometimes wrongly assume our vision is also God’s vision?

It is true that some visions are visions of disobedience to God. Israel had a vision to be like other nations. It lead to their spiritual downfall and eventually to their captivity. We too can become disconnected from the voice from heaven. And we will pay a price, just like Israel.

But it also may be true that some visions, while not sinful, need the maturing guidance of the Holy Spirit. “What is wisdom for this time and place in God’s kingdom” is a question that needs answered.

Truth is absolute in many ways. Some things will always be sin in God’s eyes. The plea to “get with it, this is the 21st century” may not impress God at all. But truth is also dynamic in the sense that it needs a life application. The concepts of maturity and wisdom would suggest that applications of truth to life can and should change.

The needed change, viewed from human perspectives, may at times be a more conservative change and other times it will be perceived as a progressive change. Perceptions are not as important as truth. The most important questions are, “What does God see” and “Am I seeing what God sees?”