The Hazard of Misperceptions

Have you ever played a hole—or even an entire course—that made you wonder what the course designer was thinking? Small greens, huge hazards, narrow fairways, and unreasonable slopes sometimes turn the game into an impossible challenge, especially when you’re already having a bad day. You might start to think the architect was trying to weed out all but the best golfers. It can feel personal.

It isn’t, obviously. You might play the same course the next week and enjoy the challenge. But when you’re battling through adversity, your perspective gets skewed. You start to think that maybe golf is a sadistic game, or you’ll never be as good as you want to be. And it’s an easy step from there to resenting the fact that you can’t ever seem to enjoy yourself.

That’s a taste of how many people feel when they think about God. Religion and experience have often portrayed him the wrong way. People wonder why so many people suffer, assume God doesn’t care, and have been taught that he is holding all their sins against them. All the distorted images and unanswered questions make them doubt whether he exists, or to want nothing to do with him if he does.

Misperceptions about God are a complicated hazard to get out of, but there is a way out. You begin to discover and appreciate who he really is by encountering someone who reflects his nature, immersing yourself in truth as expressed in God’s Word, the Bible, and letting him reorient your vision. That’s much of what this journal is about, but it’s only a step in a long-term process of getting to know him. As you do, you find that he is full of love, happy to show it to you, and far better than anyone could imagine.

Questions: Misperceptions of God take many forms—an absentee landlord, a detached observer, a demanding parent, a strict disciplinarian looking for opportunities to correct us, a heavenly Santa Claus who could just give us whatever we want if he’s real, among others. Which images of him do you tend to think of most? Have you ever tried to hide your real self from God? How does an accurate perception of God make that effort not only impossible but unnecessary?