This is a basic tenant of Judeo-Christian thought, but how many times do we look to the God "out there" and not to the evidence of God's presence within us and those we meet?
We carry God to every place we go, to every relationship we have. We can see with God's eyes in those situations or use our own. How does God see? What does God see?The God who is Love does not see guilt, but fear. The God who is Love does not see wickedness, but woundedness. This is a far cry from what we see from our own perspective of neediness. We see other people as not meeting our needs or as actively standing in the way of our accomplishing that which would make us happy. Therefore, we judge. Therefore, they are guilty.
We project our own judgmental personality onto God as well and live in fear of punishment for that which is not up to the standard of perfection. We have a hard time forgiving ourselves and so have a harder time when asked to forgive others. All is caught up in a cycle of accusation and defense, of grief and hope.
God, however, holds out the prospect of a different kind of perspective if we but turn and access the power within us. Because we have the Spirit living within us, Galatians tells us, we have "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." This is who we are. How we see ourselves is up to us.
It is our choice to focus on the lacks within us or to live in the belief that there is a trove of power and goodness at our disposal. Using God's eyes to see others with love and ourselves with gentleness gives us access to the peace we crave.
Many of us want to work for God - our prayer has been of the "you have no feet but mine" variety. How willing are we to say to God "I have no eyes but yours?"
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