Flaws abound

We look at the world through flawed lenses. This is the human experience. No matter how hard we try, no matter how much effort we put in life, no matter how close we think we are to the truth – how we see the world will always be flawed. This has a range of effects on people.

Some will experience the flawed lens and push themselves in the direction of perfecting what they are seeing. This usually leads to an over emphasis on getting it right or being concerned with being right. This concern is an over correction though. This leads to a whole range of -isms. Humanity has been coming up with all sorts of -isms as a guide to put people on the “right” path and to be correct.

But each -ism has positives and negatives. And each -ism still can’t escape the flaws inherent in humanity. That’s because -isms are created by people. It doesn’t matter which -ism we are talking about.

I’ll take one example – fundamentalism. A fundamentalist outlook on the world offers clarity and certainty. Fundamentalism offers answers to every question. You know whether you are right or wrong. There is a feeling of control.

If you consider those things a positive, you must also know that it is those very things that are also fundamentalism’s biggest weakness and flaw. There is no room for mystery. There is no room for God being bigger than the box we try to put God into. There is no flexibility. Fundamentalism takes an existing body of knowledge and beliefs at a specific time and assumes that this body is universal across all time and space – as if human knowledge can never expand.

There is a second primary way that people react to the flaws – giving up. There are some -isms that fit into this category as well. Which really shouldn’t be a surprise. If there is one thing I have learned in life it is that spectrums aren’t straight lines. The extreme ends of any spectrum aren’t really all that far apart from each other. Rather, many spectrums are like circles with the extremes touching each other. While their beliefs may be as far away from each other as possible, their methods are often extremely similar.

Some people drown in hopelessness – unable to make peace with the flaws in how they see the world. They think there is no point to it all. They give up, waiting to die because they don’t know how to fix it – or if it can be fixed at all.

But the problem with both of these ways of dealing with the flawed lenses we see the world stems from the belief that the flawed lenses need to be fixed.

Maybe the flawed lenses aren’t all that flawed at all. Maybe they are showing us the world as it is, rather than the aspiration of what we want the world to be. We don’t like what we see. We want to dismiss it. We want to change it. We want it to go away. We respond by saying “this is not who we are.” Except this is exactly who we are. These flawed lenses are really just a mirror being held up to ourselves – showing us exactly who we are. And we don’t like what we see or being called out for it. We’d rather paint a picture of ourselves as saints – unflawed and untainted.

Maybe this is why for so many people their stated beliefs and their actions don’t match up. Our words more often than not are not reflections on what we actually believe, but rather what we aspire to believe. Our actions cannot conflict with our actual beliefs. Our actions cannot betray the core essential beliefs that we actually hold dear. Our actions shout out loud what it is we really, truly believe. The flawed lenses are really just showing us this conflict with clarity.

The flawed lenses show us poverty, homelessness, drug addiction, racism, anti-LGBTQ+, prostitution and human trafficking, greed, violence, cruelty, destruction, and more. And while we say we don’t like these things, we don’t act to end any of them – not as a society. In reality, we must be pretty comfortable with them. Or we must feel like it is hopeless. Or both. Yes, there are individuals and even groups that work tirelessly to reduce all of these things, but they come up against a tsunami of resistance. The mere fact that they are able to even put any kind of dent in any of these horrors is nothing short of a miracle.

The answer to any of these is not getting the right belief about any of these things or giving up on them. It’s seeing the reality of what they are with clear eyes. It’s seeing that the aspiration and our actions aren’t matching up – and probably are at opposite ends of the spectrum. And then to ask the question – what are we actually seeing? Not just what are we seeing out there where the supposed problem lies. But in here, in each of us. What is the mirror that is being held up to us? What are we actually seeing? Are we willing to look? Are we too afraid to see our own brokenness? Are we too scared to see our own fear and flaws? Only when we make peace with ourselves will we be able to look at reality through the flawed lens and see what is really there, how we are part of it, and what we are to do. Not just individually, but together.