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More often than not in life I find the catchy phrase: “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover” to be fallacious. My wife and I recently explored a ride at a park (that will remain anonymous). This ride was simply called Castle and just by the outside it was pretty revealing that it would be a big fat let down. It was one of those haunted, sit in a cart on a track, bad spray paint and glow-in-the-dark color schemes that gave it away. When considering my pregnant wife, I asked the ride attendant if the ride was “jolty.” He then replied “It will jolt your disappointment.” Pondering this man’s hidden wisdom, we hopped on. For some reason, there’s always hope that “maybe this ride will be different.” Rarely is that true.
Regardless, we rode Castle. It was awful. Why were we not dissuaded by the presentation of the outside of this ride? Why were we not scared off by the attendant’s dizzying maxim? We were hopeful. I suppose that’s the punch line. Christian or non-Christian, most of us find ourselves hoping against the odds. We’re hoping against the spelled-out-in-neon-spray paint words before us that this thing has a chance. This is why we rent movies without knowing what it is and watch the whole thing before concluding that we wasted 2 hours of our life. This is why we want the hero to boldly venture forth when the island is covered in mist and the odds are against him. This is why we hang out with tax collectors and lepers. This is why we hope to rise with Christ when the world tells us chance is at play.
Like I said at the beginning, more times than not the cover is most definitely a discription of the character of what’s inside the book. By all means- use discernment before you rent that movie or walk into Castle. But also, deny your fear and any plausible arguments that dissuade you from truth.
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Thanks for posting this, it really clears up confusion and many questions i have had. I believe that the Holy Spirit intercedes to speak truth to those who need to hear what is being said at that very moment. Music and writing has been a very huge impact in my life. Thank you all for being a huge impact in my life and my families’ lives. Thank you all for your blogs, they have helped me through these times when i am in confusion. Thank you all for everything!
When is Tenth Avenue North coming to perform in Connecticut?
your band is awesome!!!!! ilove your music!!!!!!!!
HEATHER!!!!! I cannot BELIEVE you are pregnant!!!! Congratulations, my sweet wonderful amazing role-model!!!! I hope to see you again soon and in the mean time I will be praying for that precious sweet baby of yours. God bless you with an easy pregnancy and delivery. (Haha; remember last year when I was like, “Jeff, when will you have kids?” in the “ASK US ANYTHING” post on Tenth’s website??? LOL I guess I got my answer! Congrats, Heather!!!! Remember to keep us updated; esp. when you find out if it’s a girl or boy!!!! Keep us posted!!!! Love ya!) -Emily
Your wife is pregnant?!?!?!? CONGRATS!!!! XD
thanks for the encouraging note :)
That’s very true, i catch myself judging ppl before i meet them. Then when i get to know them, it’s like whoah there nothing how i expected! I think its an instinct, we sometimes do it without wanting to?!
Hi Jeff,
I was just wandering if that castel ride you mentioned was it at lake winnie cuz when i was at lake winnie aug 15 for your concert their was a ride called the castel if this is the ride your talking about I agree it was horid not scary at all.
Thanks Jeff, I needed that right at the moment I read it.
Thanks for praying for my son at the Jax concert. (which was awesome, by the way)
1st impressions ARE everything. We perceive selectively. Preconceived notions dictate the sensual stimuli that we perceive and the way that we interpret those stimuli. We look to satisfy our preconceived notions. For example, if I decide that Jill is annoying, the next time I hang out with her, I am more likely to perceive and interpret stimuli that support this belief. Accordingly, I will notice that she interrupted me four times and said hypocritical things, but I won’t notice that her jokes were really funny or that she had a really positive attitude. When I say that we perceive selectively, this observation focuses more on the priority we give to stimuli than on the actual reception of them ( however the latter is also a factor). We sort stimuli that fulfill our preconceived notions in a file more toward the front of our mental cabinent and those that don’t satisfy it get dropped in a file way out there in the back of the cabinent. This process is EXTREMELY difficult to fight. It happens subconsciously. So, Jeff, I think this might play a role in your observation.
Hello Jeff! We meet again! Remember me? Night of Joy 2010 September 10, 2010 to be exact on Space mountain, you left out a very important detail, Jeff, you never told us you were in my favorite christian band of all time… :( but anyways jeff i agree, nice way to put it, me and my friends who also met you would really like to talk to you again jeff…...
love the way you put things cant wait to see the september 19th concert inJeff :)
this dicussion is uniquely unexplainable, nice:)
love it, amazing lesson .... you should have a concert in
Canada btw. :)
I love the way you put this. A lot, real life examples are the best. I really agree we always want excitement in our lives and sometimes we get hopeful for things even though we know they won’t fullfill us. God is the only one who can really know the truth behind all matters, that is awesome that we can talk to him and put all our trust in him. You guys really sometimes just make my day :)
This is a very interesting lesson. we always seem to jump into things our brain tells us is no good, because we want to believe that there is more to the story. We want to believe that it will be what we are looking for, but it rarely is. We should all take some time to step back and look at the situaton, to let God show us what we are up agasint, and show us what we need to do.