We used to have a homeless man who lived across the street from the church. Thinking they were helping him, some people got him moved from a place he was loved, to a place no one knows about now. He was taken to places he didn’t like and he ran away. I miss him and once again I learned the valuable lessons of perception. Here’s what I mean.
When I introduced him to the body, brought him in to a Sunday service, unplanned, the reactions were varied. The perceptions were from A to Z and beyond XYZ, if you will. 
Let me share four perceptions.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and reality is in the perceiver, not the perceived. Read that again and stop to breathe a moment.
You okay now?
The first perception is that of negativity, fear, and concern. Who is this man? What if he is a child molester? Would he steal stuff from the church? Is he a danger to the members of the body. But, are those emotions, thoughts, and perceptions reality?
The second perception is the socially concerned view. Here is a man to be pitied. He needs help. We need to do this for him and maybe a little of that for him. We need to show him sympathy, get him to a homeless shelter, etc.
The third perception is the loving and caring idle perception. He’s such a sweet person. Look at his gentle nature, how appreciative he is of our concern for him. He wouldn’t hurt a fly.
The fourth perception takes us into the spiritual realm of sorts. We see him as a person who has left the cares of this world behind him. He is no longer indebted to anyone and the only debt is love. He has transcended this world! Wow, how cool is that!
Here’s the moral my friend.
That man was real, a true story. And that man is both YOU and I! It’s a story of how we each SEE others, and how we see ourselves. How do you want to see the world? Are you a pessimist, optimist, realist, idealist, what?
Plotinus had it aright, “Reality is not in the observed, but in the observer.”
How REAL are you?
Makes me think of, “Who do men say that I am?”
Everything from A to Z and beyond Z(en).
Real Miracles happen when we shift in our perception.
Hebrews 5:14,6:1 here is my paraphrase from Greek:
14 But Stong Meat belongeth to them of the full age,
even have have excercized there powers of perception
to even at the sense level that begin to discern and
see what is noble and what is a futile investment.
Therefore leaving the principles of doctrine, let us
6:1 go to Perfection…”
Perfection is not found in Doctine, it is found in
a shift in thinking about God. Many what to discuss
the End of Grace, not the function of Grace. Without
a revelation of the FUNCTION of grace, we are just
mentally assented to what he Hope God will do in the
end. May we see a New View of God, even in each
other!
We have “many perceptions” that fall way short of being who we’re called to be.