“Is What I see not enough?”

Hey you. I was having a conversation with God sometime last week … the same conversation I’ve been having with Him a number of times over the past few months now. It was surrounding the topic of being misunderstood and the title of this blog post was the exact phrase I sensed drop in my heart. I believe the Lord asked me – “Is what I see not enough?”.
If everybody else doesn’t get you and your actions despite your best efforts to explain, will you be content in knowing God sees your heart and is pleased? Perhaps, this is a question for you too. Now let me give a little bit of context that I imagine some of you will be able to relate to.

I had gotten in my head about being misunderstood and people possibly having have a skewed perception of me. Though this has happened to me in many situations(same with you I’d imagine), one of the fairly recent ones was connected to a social media post that I felt led to share. As it is with social media, despite your message “A”, there will always be people that will read it as a “Z”…. and how people read and interpret things to mean something so far off left truly never ceases to amaze me. While some of the scenarios I’ve seen this are wild, that statement can be a little hypocritical because we all have misunderstood something at some point. While I did not and do not consider myself a people-pleaser, I have to admit… it turns out I do care what people think… and in that moment, I hated that I did simply because it was becoming debilitating. Though I don’t need people to like or be pleased with me, I do, at the very least, desire for them to understand what I am desperately trying to communicate. As much as I wanted to simply be satisfied with the truth, knowing fully well the posture of my heart, the intent behind my words, and the message I hoped to convey, my peace was constantly threatened each time my mind drifted to “what they might have thought” … “what they may have understood” and ” how they might have interpreted it”.

I think a very important bit of information to mention here is that historically, I have been quite the overthinker. I’d like to say I am now a recovering overthinker because as anyone who can relate will be able to testify, it is a trait that can be very costly…. especially when the price is as high as your sanity. We tend to imagine a million-and-one “what-ifs” and sometimes, the actual scenario that plays out (A.K.A reality) never made the list. A lot of anxiety, stress, agitation and sadness over a ‘maybe’. If you ask me, that’s a pretty high price for an uncertainty.

The issue with overthinking is we tend to imagine a million-and-one “what-ifs” and sometimes, the actual scenario that plays out (A.K.A reality) never made the list. A lot of anxiety, stress, agitation and sadness over a ‘maybe’. If you ask me, that’s a pretty high price for an uncertainty.

Anyways, while I was conversing and wrestling with God regarding my feelings, I expressed my distaste for conflict, my aversion for contention and my annoyance at feeling the need to defend myself. Despite how eloquent you may be or how carefully you try to express yourself, there will likely always be a fraction that will not understand you, your heart or/and your message. Truly, it could be that the message was not well communicated but on the flip side, everybody has a pair of lens they view the world and life through. Many times, life experiences have tinted those lens and if the shades they have on are tinted red, no matter how closely you hold a white flower to their line of sight, it will always appear pink. You may never be able to see eye to eye on certain things… these are the times where we must consider settling with an agreement to disagree.

Everybody has a pair of lens they view the world and life through. Many times, life experiences have tinted those lens and if the shades they have on are tinted red, no matter how closely you hold a white flower to their line of sight, it will always appear pink.

Some weeks ago, within this context, I thought about some of the prophets in the Bible and how misunderstood we see that they were not to mention our saviour himself. Jesus, had all sorts of narratives surrounding Him that were anything but an accurate representation of who He was and is. And He was absolutely perfect. There will always be people that do not understand or even like you despite your best efforts and this is why people-pleasing is so exhausting. It is often fighting a losing battle and sometimes, you may win at the expense of displeasing God… And that is, once again, too high a price to pay. When John the Baptist came neither eating nor drinking, people said he had a demon while Jesus’s approach to eat and drink got him called a drunkard and glutton by some( Matt 11:18-19). There is absolutely no way you can please or satisfy everybody.

“Obviously, I’m not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ’s servant. ” -Gal 1:10

“For John didn’t spend his time eating and drinking, and you say, ‘He’s possessed by a demon. The Son of Man, on the other hand, feasts and drinks, and you say, ‘He’s a glutton and a drunkard….” – Mat 11:18-19

I’ll be honest with you, I’ve had many situations in my life where being misunderstood has made me wanna call the whole people… or relationship with people thing quits (pretty silly I know… perhaps I didn’t grow up normalizing conflict). And as with pretty much everything in my life, I’ve had very candid conversations with God about this too. The truth of the matter is that conflict comes with the territory called “relationship” in any and every capacity, and even Jesus did not escape this so how can I? Amongst even His followers, down to the very close 12, He was misunderstood and frequently so. I believe the issue of understanding is the concept behind the question Jesus asked an expert in religious law – “How do you read it? “. Clearly to hear or read is not enough, we need understanding. We need revelation.

“Jesus replied, “What does the law of Moses say? How do you read it?”” – Luke 10:26

This post was to be an encouragement to everyone who is weary of being misunderstood… especially when doing the very thing God led them to do. For the person who is incredibly stressed and agitated with their intentions being overlooked and words being misconstrued despite attempts to clarify. Imagine God asking you “Is what I see not enough?”. I hope today you can rest in the fact that He sees you.
Ask Him to lead you regarding your next step and find your rest in your obedience to your father.

On the other hand, this is also a call to be more considerate and mindful of the conclusions we come to concerning the meaning and motives behind people’s words/actions. Be careful to distinguish your feeling from the intent and the action. We all have lens on which affect the way we see, hear and receive. Let the Holy Spirit be your purifier.

If this was for you. I hope you found this encouraging. I love you but moreso God loves you. And He is El-roi, The God that sees you… I hope you can rest in that today 💕

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