May
6
2015
An Old Concept Applies
Posted in Salvation 2 Comments
I was thinking about a term I learned in one of my college psychology classes.
The concept intrigued me at the time.
I always saw myself as someone for whom this concept wasn’t an issue.
That all changed today.
If you ever watch a child play, you will see creativity and ingenuity at its finest.
Oatmeal containers become drums.
Pots become hats.
Laundry baskets become boats on which the child will sail to faraway places.
Children can look at a thing and see all its possibilities.
We adults often have more of a problem with that.
I am a “think outside the box” type person.
I will usually find a more creative way to do something.
Today, I was proven wrong.
It was another birthday, this time for a special twelve-year-old boy.
This young man is a swimmer and a lacrosse player.
It seemed appropriate to get him a few lacrosse things.
A few lacrosse items and a big homemade tollhouse cookie on a cookie sheet.
I went to the lacrosse store and found neon green socks with lacrosse sticks on the side.
I found a really large water bottle with a logo on the front.
I walked around looking for one more thing.
I saw it on the wall.
Laces.
Not boring laces, but laces in every imaginable color.
I found neon green laces to go with the socks.
Perfect; I bought two.
I attached his card to his big cookie and put the other items in a bag.
I went over to their house after school to see him before his lacrosse practice.
Another mother was there with her two daughters.
The birthday boy opened his bag.
I’m not sure what the lines mean that are on the laces…I said admitting my confusion.
Oh, this is so cool!
I just learned how to lace my stick.
I must have looked really confused.
The other mother, who is a friend, began to laugh quietly.
I looked at her.
She somehow got what I didn’t seem to get.
He just learned how to lace his stick? What was he talking about?
I looked at the other mother who was trying hard not to laugh.
They’re not for shoes, are they? I said quietly.
She laughed harder, out loud this time.
I thought I was buying the perfect shoelaces to go with his socks.
How wrong I was!
As I drove home, I laughed at myself.
I am a mother of an All-American lacrosse player.
To be honest, I am merely a professional spectator.
When my children played sports, I was simply there to support them.
If you asked me about lacrosse, field hockey, soccer, or track I would barely pass.
I know the basics of each sport.
But lacing lacrosse sticks?
How was I to know the colorful laces on the wall were not shoelaces?
Then I remembered the term from psychology class.
Functional fixedness.
That is a type of cognitive bias.
It involves a tendency to see objects as only working in a particular way.
Multi-colored laces on a wall in a lacrosse store are shoelaces.
It is as simple as that.
We are guilty of functional fixedness in our life as well.
I pondered that as I drove home.
My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don’t show favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there,” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom He promised those who love Him? But you have insulted the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are slandering the noble name of Him to whom you belong? If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right. But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers. For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. (James 2:1-10)
We put people in categories.
We make judgments.
We have a type of cognitive bias.
We tend to see people in only one way.
We rarely think out of the box.
We think that someone is beyond hope, beyond salvation.
Functional fixedness.
Adulterer, murderer, liar, or thief; those are the true sinners.
But our sins, we tend to fudge on.
We make excuses: At least I’m not as bad as that!
We think outside of the box because we have our reasons for doing what we do.
We rationalize our sins away.
For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. (James 2:10)
Stumbles on just ONE point.
No fudging there.
Functional fixedness applies.
If we sin, we are a sinner.
And we all sin.
Everyone of us.
Everyone but Jesus.
How we need Him!
There is no wiggle room.
There is no thinking outside of the box where our sin is concerned.
If we break even one point of God’s law it is as if we broke all of God’s laws.
That is how much we need a Savior.
A Savior who is the Way.
The Way back to the Father.
That is not a cognitive bias.
That is fact.
Lord Jesus, we cannot possibly keep the law perfectly. But You did. You took our sins upon Yourself on the cross and died in our place. The innocent One died for the Lawbreaker. But You rose again. The Father was satisfied. There is no wiggle room when it comes to our sin. Either we come to You in faith and trust You for our salvation, or we try to follow the law perfectly all by ourselves. That is impossible! Help us Lord Jesus. Through Your Spirit, show us how desperately we need You as our Savior.
So true! We forget sometimes how far short of God’s holiness we are. We truly need a Savior/Mediator between us and God, and God in His grace and love gave us One–His only Son. Thank you, Lord!
Our Advocate. Our Redeemer.
You are right, Sue. We so often forget there is One who lives to intercede for us.
Our Lord Jesus.
Gina