Move closer. Perceptions depend on where we stand

Wyoming is a wild and wonderful state. One of America’s best.

When you are driving straight through it, however, the road has a strange way of extending itself into infinity. Although you can travel along at a good pace, Interstate-84 is mostly a long ribbon of monotonous asphalt.

On one such journey, however, we came upon a large car that was weaving all over the Interstate. We watched from a distance as the car would zig zag—speeding up and slowing down as we approached.

I said to my wife, “Write down that license plate number as we pass. The person driving that car must be intoxicated or sleepy—or have a medical problem.”

I finally saw a window to pass as the big Buick drifted back and forth like a rudderless ship. Pulling up beside the car we were surprised to see a very old man, barely tall enough to see over the steering wheel, hugging the largest bag of Cheetos we’d ever seen with his left arm. With his right hand he was switching between steering wheel and filling his mouth with Cheetos.

We would have never guessed how wrong all of our perceptions were until we saw that bag of Cheetos.

C. S. Lewis wrote, “What you see and hear depends a great deal on where you are standing. It also depends on what sort of person you are.”

The Old Testament prophet Amos was content to shepherd his flock and pick his figs until he got a life-changing summons from heaven.

God said to him, “Go to Bethel and warn the King and the people of Israel to turn back to Me, or face judgment.”

God’s people had been so mesmerized by their idols of pleasure, prosperity and power that they didn’t realize their perceptions had become as twisted as a left-handed corkscrew.

They had forgotten God, descending into a society of cruelty, violence and greed. They had forgotten that their relationship with God was intrinsically and intimately connected with how they treated one another, their neighbors, and even themselves.

God was grieved but yet merciful, by sending an anonymous, fiery-eyed fig-picker to say, “Come back to Me … . Do what is good, run from evil and live!” He also said, “I want to see a mighty flood of justice, an endless river of righteous living” (Amos 5:4-24).

Amos had a bundle of warped and distorted national perceptions he had to deal with and put straight in the Lord’s strength and wisdom. And so do we.

From a distance, we form perceptions, seeing a zig here and zag there, sometimes followed by an instant judgment where we conclude, “Somebody should speak up or do something about that!”

There is no end to opinions about how to make justice and mercy prevail. As the world swerves back and forth before us, people say this or that organization will make things right and just. Others insist that if everyone would only submit to this position paper—or elect that politician—it would get us back between the lines on the road.

But few are willing—like the simple, courageous, and plain-spoken prophet Amos—to go right into the Bethels of our world and speak God’s Truth, even in the face of overwhelming rejection. And it is not until we are willing to pull right up beside the people and places perceived at a distance that we will really see and understand.

For God’s people, there is only one reality, and that is God’s way of achieving just and right living. When He says, “Seek Me and live,” He means it.

Start there, and everything else lines up.