The chasm I speak of is the gap that stands between the “you” of today and the “you” you have planned for you to become. It’s your self-assessment, your self-image. Who and what you think you are drives your social interactions and your priorities for using your resources. Human mental health flows from the headwaters of our thought life; what controls your thought life will predetermine the purity of the waters that flow in your river of life. That’s the water that citizens around you drink, wash in, and use to irrigate their life-crops. Our lives impact those around us. The closer a person is to us, the greater the impact our positive or negative attitudes have on them.
I do not think any human is capable of accurately evaluating their own lives or their influence on the community. That is how we chose the communities we live in: by accepting or rejecting, valuing, the people around us, based on how similar they are to ourselves. The closer a person is to holding our opinions, the safer I feel in letting them into my life. On the other hand, the greater the difference in our thinking, the greater I perceive you as a threat. And we all move quickly to remove or neutralize what threatens our sense of value and security.
I have sat with married couples who have come to an impasse. They can’t move forward, or even cohabitate, with someone who is so ornery, headstrong, or selfish. I have experienced that chasm while raising three children. I have experienced it in a local body of believers, a church family.
The chasm is not physical; it’s mental. It starts out in a small grassless spot in the communal lawn we share. If allowed to stay, it grows until it is a vast desert wilderness of life-sucking “dark matter.” The chasm is the real-life expression of the promise God made to Adam and Eve: “Eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and you will surely die.” It’s the throwing of rocks, whether as missiles, words, or ignoring. Those rocks are all signs of God’s faithfulness to His promises.
The problem lies in the arrogant stance that “I am right and you are wrong.” Do you see the problem in that sentence? God’s thoughts are not included. What God has said has been modified by what I wanted God to say.
It is my natural reaction, when God appears to be silent, to start filling the empty silence. My opinion becomes my default operating system. I am usually very impressed by how wise I sound!
Are you familiar with the Dunning-Kruger Effect? I came across this “effect” a couple of weeks ago while doing a little research.
This is a synopsis: “The overestimation of competence, often referred to as the Dunning-Kruger Effect, is a cognitive bias where individuals with low ability in a task overestimate their skills. This phenomenon occurs due to a lack of metacognitive ability, which is the capacity to reflect on and assess one’s own competence. People with limited knowledge in a subject may believe they excel in it, leading to a disconnect between self-perception and actual competence. Factors contributing to this effect include a lack of feedback, ignorance, and the tendency to attribute one’s success to innate abilities rather than learning and practice.” *
My version is that the more you know, the more you realize the limits of your expertise. Conversely, the less you know, the greater your confidence in what you think you do know.
There is a huge difference between people who have a good grasp of the stories of the Bible and those who have a good grasp of themselves as revealed in those stories. The strength, wisdom, and confidence they have are based on their knowledge of the Bible. The second group’s strength lies in the dissonance they feel between themselves and the actions of God demonstrated in the Bible. The first group is focused on becoming morally good people and “reasonably” involved in a church. The second group is focused on being an accurate “image” of God. Their knowledge is focused on fully knowing the God revealed in the Bible. The first group expends their energy in being good people. The second focuses on being near the good Shepherd. The first cry out to the Holy Spirit to come near them. The second group is intent on staying in step with the Holy Spirit.
Unless your relationship with God has put you in a peaceful state of soul while also experiencing an uncomfortable state of mind, it’s likely that you are not paying a lot of attention to the One who is your “New Life.” Another way of saying this is that you may have misjudged God’s offer of salvation when you accept Jesus as your Savior, but only conditionally submit to Jesus as Lord.
Jesus uses an interesting metaphor in his parable of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16, which might have implications here. I do not mean to take the statement out of context, but I do believe it makes a point. Here in verse 26: “And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.”
Jesus is the bridge that takes us from what we know to who we know.
*American Psychological Association, February 2003, Vol 34, No. 2, “Why we overestimate our competence; Social psychologists are examining people’s pattern of overlooking their own weaknesses.”, By Tori DeAngelis
Photo – One view of Klolb Canyon, Utah. Taken this past April.
Baldwin Heirlooms 