You see this, but I see that...

Recently I have encountered people in my life who are experiencing struggles. The kind of struggles that produce perspective and character that define how an individual views every aspect of life. Many of the conclusions people come to really break my heart.

Never before have I recognized how much perspective can alter EVERYTHING in a person’s reality. Everything meaning things like God, family, friendships, work and passions.

Even if all of the evidence is available and recognizable, human kind sometimes chooses self or denial over factual evidence or faith.

This idea really expands and validates the concept of free will, and just how relevant that it is. We choose, even on the microscopic level, how we view a situation that is full of fact, reason and feelings.

I recently read a wonderful book entitled Abba's Child, written by one of my favorite authors of his genre, Brennan Manning. The script was a unexpectedly life-changing and I highly recommend it. I intend to submit a brief review on the publication later this week. One of the concepts Manning discusses in the book is the following: 

"We unwittingly project onto God our own attitudes and feelings toward ourselves... But we cannot assume that He feels about us the way we feel about ourselves -- unless we love ourselves compassionately, intensely, and freely."

The idea is that many people project and characterize God by the the perceived faults they see in themselves. I feel that this concept can also be applied to other people in our life, passions we have, and our general perception of reality. The things we don't like about the way we operate, or the past mistakes we have made, can often directly effect our our perception of reality.

I am not seeking to define what reality is, for that subject is one of its own, but I do feel it is important to magnify the relationship between free will and negative perspectives of reality. People often choose the way they view life by exercising free will to see what they want to see. 

While I do not intend to define reality at this time,  I do believe there is solid truth that can root people in a clearer perspective of what I find to be reality, and I want so desperately for people to live within the freedom of the following...

The truth that they are "compassionately, intensely, and freely" loved by the creator, and that they are placed in the time period, and geographical location for divine reasons.

It is a shame that a truth so freeing and so full of strength is alienated by distractions of any measure.

To close I will leave you with another perspective-widening view on the perception of reality.

"To understand reality is not the same as to know about outward events. It is to perceive the essential nature of things. The best-informed man is not necessarily the wisest. Indeed there is a danger that precisely in the multiplicity of his knowledge he will lose sight of what is essential. But on the other hand, knowledge of an apparently trivial detail quite often makes it possible to see into the depth of things. And so the wise man will seek to acquire the best possible knowledge about events, but always without becoming dependent upon this knowledge." -Bonhoeffer