A Word about Perception

I read an article recently that said that if we paid attention to the number of advertisements we’re exposed to on any given day, the total would be anywhere from 4,000 to 10,000 appeals … EVERY DAY. Wow! I know they’re everywhere I look; appeals, ads, commercials. But I had no idea it was that many. It turns out that the four to ten-thousand figure encompasses ads across different platforms, including television, radio, the internet, and outdoor media. (I even saw a commercial the other day while I was standing at a gas pump, filling my tank.) 

Interesting, though. Researchers discovered that we consciously notice less than 100 of those ads every day. It’s what scientists call “ad blindness.” We subconsciously filter out the majority of advertisements we’re exposed to, to avoid information overload. Instead, we use something called selective perception. It’s our brain’s autopilot mode. We ignore certain things, while we subconsciously pay attention to or notice other things. For example, if you’re considering buying a red car, you start to notice every red car on the road. You don’t intentionally decide to notice them; your mind just does it for you. Selective perception keeps us functional, in a world of overwhelming stimuli. That’s a good thing, I suppose, except …

Well, except that I sang a hymn last Sunday that has really been bothering me. One of the wonderful things about hymns in addition to the beauty of their melodies is the truth of their texts. Great hymns communicate great truths. And when we sing them together as a body of believers, we are declaring the goodness and the greatness of our God.

 

Well, the hymn I sang last Sunday was “Great is Thy Faithfulness.” If you’re like me, you know the text by heart:

 

Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father.

There is no shadow of turning with thee.

Thou changest not, thy compassions they fail not.

As thou hast been, thou forever shall be.

 

Summer and winter, springtime and harvest.

Sun, moon and stars, in their courses above,

Join with all nature in manifold witness,

To thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.

 

The verses of “Great is thy Faithfulness” are beautiful. But when I sing that chorus, it often causes me pause:

 

Great is thy faithfulness; Great is thy faithfulness.

Morning by morning, new mercies I see.

 

And that’s the line that causes me pause; the ‘Morning by morning new mercies I see’ part.

 

Really? Am I paying attention to what God is demonstrating and displaying in my life every day? Or am I guilty of ad blindness, and ‘selective perception,’ filtering out the obvious things God is displaying like I filter out the nine-zillion commercials my brain is bombarded with every day?

 

O Lord, my brain is numb from this world’s effort to tell me what I need, what I have to have, what I need to buy. Help me, today, to quiet myself and pay attention to the new mercies I can see today from your good and gracious hand if I just stand still and pay attention.

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