Looking Through God’s Eyes

Have you ever met someone who just rubbed you the wrong way? You can try to avoid them, you can try to be nice, but inside you cringe at the irritation of their presence. Sometimes our personalities just don’t click, they clash instead.

Pastor Heather entertained us with a story of a time period when she had a great deal of difficulty being nice to a co-worker because she just didn’t like that person. Her struggle took her to prayer and prayer opened her eyes to see this person from a different point of view.

Loving as God Loves

We will get irritated at times by the way others think and act. Some people can be very obnoxious even, but everyone has a heart, and everyone has some divine character deep inside. God loves each of us unconditionally based on the unique divine qualities we were created with. To illustrate this point we watched the following short clip from the movie “Bruce Almighty”.

The Power of Perspective

In a specific scientific study about what causes marriages to decline, Professor Eli Finkel found that it is the tendency that each person gets stuck in their own point of view about the other. He designed what he calls the “Marriage Hack”, Which is a method to help each person in the relationship to see from the point of view of a benevolent 3rd party. Implementing this procedure which takes only 21 minutes a year stopped the decline in marriage satisfaction and increased the couples ability to create lasting happiness in their relationships.

Who is the Benevolent 3rd Party?

When we think from the point of view of a 3rd party who wants nothing more than the happiness and well being of each person we are thinking from God’s perspective. Whether we label this 3rd party God or not, social science is proving to us that we need a higher perspective to improve our relationships and increase love and happiness in our lives. I believe that is what Jesus was trying to teach when he said:

If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do as much. If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.

– Matthew 5:46-48

We don’t need to be put off by the idea of perfection because the perfection that Jesus spoke about simply means the ability to love with a pure heart. Anyone can make a mistake and that is not a fault of character, it is part of being human. 2000 years ago Jesus was trying to introduce the idea of seeing others from God’s viewpoint.

Deep & Wide

For the past month our Sunday message theme has been “Deep & Wide”; deepening and widening our understanding and ability to live as God designed us. One of the 5 things that God uses to help us grow spiritually is “practical application” of the word or truth. God’s love and truth surround us at all times but sometimes we have to step out of our limited perspective to see it and feel it. One way to do this is through study and practice – practice loving, practice giving, practice seeing from the 3rd party’s viewpoint.

On Saturday July 20th we will be hosting another Unification Thought seminar with Gerry Servito at the Best Western Hotel. Save the date – all are welcome.