By Sister Mary Scholastica, O.C.D.
Assumptions. Presumptions. How prevalent these words are for our world today. If you step back and look at the flow of any given day and reflect upon your interactions with others whether at home, work, with friends, you’ll learn a lot about how you think, judge, move, act.
There is much we assume and presume about ourselves and others. We assume our intuition is correct. We trust our own personal thought process and assume our thoughts are correct. We assume the person we are struggling with is not facing their issues, that it can’t be me. We read into negative body language and assume that the person is upset with us, rude, has bad manners and then react accordingly. If we have a negative interaction with someone, we assume/presume the person’s motives are coming from a place of ill-will. We presume goodness in ourselves and presume negative intent of others, especially if we don’t know or like them. This kind of negative thought process seems to be the default choice rather than assuming and presuming goodness and good will. We see and experience it in daily life, we see and experience it all around us. Just turn on the TV or browse the internet. It’s our daily bread.
What if I deliberately chose to consciously live each day aware of my thought processes and how these thoughts form how I see and respond to the world around me? What if I chose to presume goodness of others in all the interactions I have within a given day? What if I chose to not make assumptions when I find myself judging others harshly because of how I think they are wrong in their response? What if I chose to clarify my perceptions every time my perception was negative? What if?
The reality is, we are never 100% right all the time. This is a fact. We hardly know ourselves; how can we presume to know others’ thoughts and motives and to make the radical assumption that we are correct in our judgment?
When you think about it, what a limiting world view. What a limiting perspective on life. It feels narrow and confining, negative, disunifying, devoid of growth. It limits others. It is profoundly sad to think that we would continuously choose to live in this space. True, for many of us, it is probably a habitual way of thinking. However, all habits can be re-formed. If we know that our current habits do not breathe life into others, it will behoove us, our neighbors, and the whole world “to be transformed by the renewal of our minds” (Romans 12:2).
Can you imagine if we clarified all our negative perceptions, as we have them. If we chose to see the good in others and attributed good motives to their actions. If we gave others the benefit of the doubt, which is what we would hope others would give to us. If we apologized for the times we judged harshly and wrongly. If we sought to know the thoughts of others and engaged in dialogue so as to grow in knowledge, understanding and unity. In essence, we would be building others up all the time, we would be helping make our world a better place. Planting seeds that would eventually flower into a culture of trust, openness, neighbor looking out for neighbor. As simplistic as this sounds, I do believe it to be true.
The energy that is sapped out of us because of negative daily interactions that presume ill will in both directions of a relationship show us that the opposite, presuming goodness and being careful about our assumptions of others are and will be life-giving, fruit-bearing.
Why are we here on this earth anyhow? There is a purpose to our existence. If you are reading this blog, this means that you are someone who desires to grow, simply because you are taking the time to feed your own soul. So again, I ask, why are we here on this earth? At the end of the day, all things are passing. All things. We only have this one day, today, to love God more deeply, love our neighbor, help others see their potential, be a source of life and light for others because we are followers of Christ.
Your personal transformation, becoming more and more like Jesus, impacts the life of others. It begins in the little things, in how you see and interact with others in your daily life. Don’t let these opportunities pass you by. Presume goodness. Clarify your perceptions. Assume the best of others. Put yourself in a stance of learning, growing, receiving. Breathe life into others. Love God with your whole heart and soul, love your neighbor as yourself. These are the commandments given to us by the good Lord Himself. Guaranteed satisfaction, no money back! God bless you!
