Context…
This was Sarah Jakes Roberts’ chosen topic in a video I watched recently. She spoke about us having less context for the people we interact with than we think. That we also have less context than God when we discuss these people and even ourselves.
Why does it even matter?
Well for ourselves, imagine if you could zoom into your future and see just a brief moment of it, based on our current choices. We would probably change how we thought about the current moment. That is the perfect view that God would have of our life. He has the FULL context. The before and after. And everything in between. While we only have the now and the past.
And the next thing is, our perception about the events of our past and even our now can be heavily influenced by our reactions to what happened or is happening.
For instance, if we’re hurt by a friend or loved one in the past, each time we have to interact with someone who reminds us of them we would remember the pain and repeat a pattern to shield us from potentially being hurt again. We bring the moment into our now and relive it each time. Our context around this interaction could create a system so risk averse it would filter into other areas of our lives.
The context also sets the stage for what’s next. So,if it looks like what we experienced before even with other people, even in a new place, even when we thought we moved on; we still respond as if it was that thing happening again. Realizing that this is true, can help us see things differently when we examine our triggers or feelings that we don’t want.
Perhaps what is happening is that when we are in a familiar context our perception is influenced by said context. When I roll out my yoga mat, my mind and body prepares for a work out. When my period starts I start anticipating pain even when there is none. The context sets the stage and we walk into the scene to play our expectant role. It can be changed if we want and awareness becomes the beginning of that process. Or so I believe.