Perception: Two Circles . . . What Do You See? (Peter A. Black)

It’s interesting how something is seen for what it is when alone, but once placed adjacent to something else in a certain way, the sight can grab your attention and seem funny, absurd or ridiculous. Take, for example, something that happened this morning.

Our son had to be off to work, and his wife had left long before to start her nursing shift, so my wife and I were over at their place at 7 o’clock, in order to see the young’uns up and fed and off to school.

First up was the eight-year old. As she often does, she soon got busy with pen and paper. This time she practiced drawing circles freehand and came over to me, brandishing her efforts. Remarkable! Believe me . . . I couldn’t have done better myself.

She had some really well-formed circles on the page. “That’s a really good one,” I said. “. . . and that one there is very good, too—very round.”

 “Hah! Hah! Grandpa. See those two together – they look just like a kid’s butt!” she snickered. I chuckled.

Yep, what we often perceive in what we see is not so much in the eye of the beholder, as it is in the mind, of course.

Later on this morning I had occasion to call in at our community senior centre. A Zumba fitness class was in progress. There might have been forty-five or more senior ladies swinging to the music, but only one lone man. It wasn’t funny or even ridiculous, but it caused me to ponder what likely accounts for that enormous statistical contrast. I reckoned the situation offered a study in sociology.

Ah, but I could see a lighter side, too. “One lone, brave soul!” I grinned when chatting with the coordinator. I can imagine the fellow’s family and friends teasing him about how lucky he is to be the only guy with all those good-lookin’ grandmas.                  

Perception is a significant faculty, and we humans have a capacity to detect patterns and perceive incongruities or paradoxes in situations. Here’s one: At a time when whole economies struggle to stay afloat and various nations teeter on the precipice of economic collapse, millionaires and billionaires continue to multiply. I read recently that—despite the international economic gloom—global wealth is at an all-time high. Boggles the mind.

Perspective is related to perception. India is known for its caste-system and towering poverty, yet millionaires are multiplying there at a rapid rate. Likewise, in China. Communist China! Was communism not supposed to bring in a classless society, with all citizens sharing equally in the wealth? Now here’s a contrast, our American cousins—were they not supposed to be a classless society, too, but based on an entrepreneurial, capitalist equal opportunity model? Despite the economic downturn there that affected the whole world, millionaires and billionaires continue to multiply, while people lose their jobs and homes . . . and pensions.

Two circles side by side. Add two round dots to each and you see eyes. Add a spot below them and a small curve below that, and you have faces. Perhaps they’re siblings or friends. Draw another two circles, adding a hooked line on the left of one circle and one on the right side of the other circle, add a short curved dash between them and you see eyeglasses. Or, for a bike add a T-shape for handle-bars, a seat and a triangular shape between the circles.

So much for my artistic prowess—that’s about the extent of it!

Two circles—what do you see? Two pennies?

Jesus observed the rich in all their finery casting their sizable offerings into the temple treasury. What a contrast to the humble widow woman who dropped in a couple of lowly coins.

He remarked, “They gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on” (Mark 12:44 NIV).

Perspective: Jesus saw a grateful heart and worshipful sacrifice.  

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(A briefer, earlier edition of the above article was published in The Guide-Advocate on May 9, 2013.)

Peter A. Black is a freelance writer in Southwestern Ontario, and is author of “Parables from the Pond” – a children's / family book (mildly educational, inspirational in orientation, character reinforcing). 

(Finalist -- Word Alive Press ISBN 1897373-21-X )
His inspirational column, P-Pep! appears weekly in The Guide-Advocate. His articles have appeared in 50 Plus Contact and testimony, and several newspapers in Ontario.

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The Call and the Cost - Austin

"They will put some of you to death. All men will hate you because of me. But not a hair of your head will perish."

Those are Jesus' words, and from my perspective, some of the most challening he ever spoke. In a culture of feel-good Christianity, they aren't verses you will find taped to many bathroom mirrors for someone to memorize while they shave or apply makeup. They aren't verses quoted frequently in the majority of North American churches. And as I contemplate them, I suspect I understand them on a very shallow level only.

Paradoxes fascinate me. The beautitudes are probably my favourites. But this seeming contradiction comes from the same teacher who gave us the beautitudes. That gives credibility and authority. It demands a closer look.

Luke 21:12-19 NIV
"But before all this they will lay hands on you and persecute you. They will deliver you to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name. This will result in your being witnesses to them. But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict. You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. All men will hate you because of me. But not a hair of your head will perish. By standing firm you will gain life."

Eugene Peterson's The Message, says it this way:
"But before any of this they'll arrest you, hunt you down and drag you to court and jail. It will go from bad to worse, dog-eat-dog, everyone at your throat because you carry my name. You'll end up on the witness stand, called to testify. Make up your mind right now not to worry about it. I'll give you words and wisdom that will reduce all your accusers to stammers and stutters.
"You'll even be turned in by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends. Some of you will be killed. There's no telling who will hate you because of me. Even so, every detail of your body and soul--even the hairs of your head!--is in my care; nothing of you will be lost. Staying with it--that's what is required. Stay with it to the end. You won't be sorry, you'll be saved.

What do we do with Bible verses that don't suit feel-good, comfortable Christianity? Rewriting our Bibles is one possibility. That requires the assumption that we are the ultimate authority. If we are the ultimate authority, then it necessarily follows that Jesus isn't, so his words, however fascinating, don't really count.

Oh--BUT-- we call him The Son of God. Even in our feel-good Christianity we call him that. Doesn't that come with authority and credibility?

We don't have to look very far to know that in some countries of the world today, people are behind bars for the "crime" of believing that Jesus is in fact The Son of God, and for sharing that belief. If we look a little farther, we find fresh graves in some of those countries where people have been killed for that same "crime." How do the spouces and children of those people understand the second part of that scripture passage? "Not a hair of you head will perish." I'm pretty sure their understanding goes deeper than mine.

Jesus warned repeatedly that the cost of following him would be high. He repeatedly gave a stark and gruesome call. "Take up your cross and follow me." The cross, in his time and culture, was not a beautiful gold pendant. It was a bloody, cruel instrument of the most brutal death imaginable.

I own a 2007 edition of Foxe, Voices of the Martyrs, 33 A.D. to Today. A historical treasure, and a treasury of intense and costly belief, it's not my favourite reading. Yet it is filled with stories of people who dared to believe that death was not the end. They dared to believe Jesus' words could be taken literally. They dared to accept the high cost of his call, and trust that he would also make good on his promise--even after death--that not a hair would perish.

Maybe I need to get out of my comfort zone. Maybe my Christianity is a bit too much me-centered, and too little Christ-centered. That's the strange thing about paradoxes. They almost always challenge me, sometimes more than my comfort zone wants.

The Paradox of the Passive Voice

Paradoxes intrigue me. As a writer I strive, with less than perfect success, to reduce or eliminate the passive voice from my work. I routinely do searches for key words: is, am, as, are, was, were, be, to be, and variations of them. Yet the passive voice saturates some of the most dynamic passages of Scripture. The great "I AM" statements of the Old Testament use the passive voice at their core: (emphases added)

Moses said to God, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The
God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?'
Then what shall I say to them?"
God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the
Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.'" Exodus 3:13-14

The LORD said to Moses, "Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to
them: 'Be holy, because I, the LORD your God, am holy.
"Each of you must respect his mother and father, and you must observe my
Sabbaths. I am the LORD your God.
"Do not turn to idols or make gods of cast metal for yourselves. I am the
LORD your God." Leviticus 19: 1-4

The New Testament also bathes many passages with the passive voice, yet they somehow remain so dynamic that language can scarcely grasp the fullness:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was
God. He was with God in the beginning.
Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has
been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines
in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. John 1:
1-5

What then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who
can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us
all---how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who
will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who
justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus who died---more than that, who
was raised to life---is at the right had of God and is also interceding for us.
Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or
persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:
"For your sake we face death all day long:
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved
us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,
neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth,
nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of
God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:31-39

"I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who was, and who is,
and who is to come, the Almighty." Revelations 1:8

"I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One. I was dead, and behold I
am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades." Revelations 1: 17b-18

The Bible claims to be inspired by God, or "God-breathed" as Paul puts it in his second letter to Timothy. I accept that claim, believe internal evidence supports it. But the repeated use of the passive voice still raises questions. The King James version of the Bible, first published in 1611, set a tone for English literature that has never been surpassed. Yet it, and every English translation since that I have examined makes repeated use of the passive voice in the same places. Does that mean God didn't know basic rules of writing? Greek and Hebrew, the original lanugages of the Bible, prove beyond my skills and knowledge. The saga of hardship and bloodshed before the earliest English translations became widely available reads with more drama than the best fiction thriller imaginable. The literary beauty of King James English in the 1611 and the 1769 editions still sets an incredibly high standard for writers to strive for, even if you dispute the possibility of God's involvement. Newer translations make it easier to understand, but the passive voice continues to show up in key Scripture portions. So the question remains: Did God not know basic rules of writing?

I will argue that those passages are still so dynamic that we can only grasp the smallest part of them. If you take God out of the picture, they remain literary treasures to stand beside anything in print. If you acknowledge even the possibility of God, they have a wealth and richness worth a lifetime to explore.

The paradox of the passive voice in Scripture continues to fascinate me. All the trade-marks of "weak writing" seem to try to bring key passages of the Bible down to something we can grasp. Yet those passages still rank among the most dynamic works in English literature, and doubtless, every other language. I'll risk believing Paul got it right in one more verse that uses the passive voice:

For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of
God is stronger than man's strength. 1 Corinthians 1:25

Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers.

The Alpha and Omega

Four small words, so simple,

say so little,

reveal so much.

IN THE BEGINNING, GOD.

and after years numbered in thousands:

IN THE BEGINNING WAS. . .

AND WAS. . .

AND WAS. . .

Passive voice chosen,

writer's bane

to reveal truths

too deep for words,

too alive for mortal comprehension;

too active for minds to grasp.

AND GOD SAID. . .

AND GOD SAW. . .

AND IT WAS GOOD!

Profound truths

in oh so simple phrases.

For THE WORD WAS

AND IS

AND IS TO COME.

It is enough.

IN THE BEGINNING, GOD.

and in the end

God still.

Copyright Brian C. Austin