"The Power of Perception" - Peace Hyde

Hello and welcome to a piece of peace. Your weekly dose of motivation and inspiration. This week I would like to share on the topic of “the power of perception.” Yesterday I put up an inspirational post on my instagram. The post was a positive self-love message encouraging everyone to love him or herself no matter what they were going through. I had some mixed reactions from my amazing faith builders that got me thinking about the way we perceive and interact with one another as human beings.

First of all, let me explain a little bit more about the post. It was a video of a man who most people will find a little bit strange based on his choice of long green hair with matching long curved green nails, long eye lashes and quite an ambitious looking eye brow coloured with an equally ambitious set of colours. I am the first to admit that one would typically look at such a person and relegate them to being a clown or someone who is simply not serious about their lives. Secondly, the flamboyant speaking style of this person also alludes to the fact that his sexual orientation might not necessarily be acceptable to a lot of people based on religious or homophobic grounds. That being said, I decided to share the video because although all the initial thoughts occurred to me, I saw something more in him. I looked past the entire make up and the exterior look and listened to the message the man was sharing. And the message was simply a positive affirmation of self-love and acceptance of who you are.

I decided to post the video for my faith builders who right or wrong always let me know what they think. I got some very interesting feedback. Most people had the general opinion that, it was wrong for me to support someone who portrayed themselves like that. I had some people quote-biblical verses to buttress their points also and explain in no small way, about how the man was destined for hell. One faith builder said and I quote “yes I get the message but do you have to support someone who looks like this? And also being gay is wrong and should not be encouraged.” In all, I received over 30 comments with mixed emotions about the post but with the underlying theme of, No peac_hy, we do not support this one. I found this very interesting and discussed with a close friend what was being said. I explained that the whole idea of the post was for people to not judge a book by its cover and give someone a chance no matter how unacceptable that individual may appear to us.

My friend came back with some valid points. Firstly, he said no matter how positive the man’s message, people only listen to people who they can relate to. For example, if you saw a man running for presidency with tattoos all over the body, you would be less inclined to vote for him no matter how qualified he was for the position. Secondly, you will not see an image of soldiers going to war in tailored suits and have the confidence that they will win the war. Thirdly, imagine going into church and the preacher approached the podium in his boxer shorts. Would you respect anything he had to say? He concluded by saying perception is everything and to be taken seriously, one needs to look the part of a serious person.

Whiles I completely agree with everything he said, there was a part of me that still felt unsettled. It is not my job to convince anyone of what is acceptable to them or not. I simply feel that, sometimes, the message you need or the help you have been waiting for, might just come from the most unlikely of sources. There have been several times where I needed a strong word of encouragement to help me keep moving forward and the last person in the world I could ever imagine giving me deep sound advice usually had the right words that helped me get through my moment of darkness.

God sometimes uses the unworthiest of people in the bible to transform the lives of multitudes. Even Jesus who was the son of a carpenter and born not in a plush medieval hospital, but a manger with animals, would have been the last candidate ever selected to be the saviour of the world, but as history would have it today, praise the lord. The moral of my story is this. In a world where image is everything, it is sometimes difficult to look past what we perceive. However, we must be open and willing sometimes to put our preconceived notions behind and listen to that inner voice because you never know who could be holding the keys to your salvation. Remember my lovely faith builders, always be yourself because everyone else is taken.

Much love,

Peace Hyde.

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