Appearances

In Hong Kong I know I don’t know.  It is rather strange actually.  Whatever I think I am observing, I know I have, at best, a limited understanding of what is really going on.  Simple questions have much deeper meaning and connotations.  Body language takes on a new set of definitions and nuances.  Even interpretation of the tone people use in their conversations is radically different.  Nothing is really as it seems.  When one knows this is the case amazing new opportunities open themselves up.  Every encounter is an opportunity to learn.  Each moment is a potential gateway full of mind and soul expanding insights and experiences.  The windows to exercise new paths of action are endless.
 
Yet there is a simple danger.  It is the same one you and I face everyday.  In a very short time one assumes the obvious is what is really going on.  We see a repetitive pattern, in Hong Kong, New York, and London, and we assume we know what is going on.  I wonder, do we?  Maybe we are accurate most of the time; but what of the rest?  The conundrum is centuries old.  Even as Jesus and his disciples sat around the table, “some thought that since Judas was their treasurer, Jesus was telling him to buy what they needed for the Feast, or that he should give something to the poor.”  (John 13.29)  There was much more to the story, then and now.
 
As I answered the phone in the middle of writing this thought I assumed I knew and understood why the call was being made.  As I listened with my heart and the Spirit I realized I had missed the primary reason for the call!  I assumed one thing, the obvious, yet there was a hidden question was one requiring compassion, simple acceptance, and love.  How easy it would have been to miss the point.  I wonder how many other instances I have missed already today.
 
Today is still unfolding.  Everything is possible.  People are dying for lack of true love.  See past the obvious.