People will make some presumptions based on their experiences. But don’t presume God is like people.
Watch/Subscribe:
https://youtu.be/LK6xiQU4gsQ
Building expectations starts from day one
First, please don’t look at the start of this video and think I don’t understand moms who just need 60 seconds to themselves. I’ve needed that minute many times, and you’re not a bad parent if your child cries as you take it. But I start with that clip and move forward through childhood and school and then to work because I want to communicate that the signals we get start from day one. We learn to build expectations right from the beginning. That’s the entire basis around attachment theory. And from the neuroscientific level, the brain will try to make sense of the world by categorizing and making presumptions. The more similar experiences happen, the stronger those neural links become and the easier it is to think that the next experience will likely be the same.
The problem is that we have no experience of what it really is to have a relationship with someone who never lies. Never hurts or pushes us beyond what we can handle. Never disappoints. All we’ve experienced is imperfect people. So, our stupid brains take what we’ve been through in this world and couple it to God. That’s how people are, so that’s how God must be…right?
Not even close.
How work can worsen the experience/presumption problem
I communicate this in the business context because when coworkers or managers are unloving, when they send the message that worth depends on doing, it makes it a struggle to remember how much God cares and how much innate value we have. We can give up going to God because we’ve been shot down and shouted at so many times. We lose an understanding that God doesn’t see us the way others have. And if we can’t see that difference, if the expectation is only more pain, striving for a relationship with Him isn’t going to seem worthwhile.
People. God. They are not the same. Please don’t get lost in the feeling that they are.
Image credit:
Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
Listen/Email signup:
faithfulontheclock.captivate.fm
Support the show:
faithfulontheclock.captivate.fm/support
patreon.com/faithfulontheclock