We Confess We Do Not See as God Sees

During the season of Lent, Bishop Wright invites all to a five-week Lenten teaching series, We Confess, with weekly video meditations and study guides that frame Lent as a loving turn toward healing, renewal, and hope through honest confession. You can learn more about the series at episcopalatlanta.org/lent26.

In this week's episode, Melissa and Bishop Wright have a conversation about the fourth reflection: We Confess We Do Not See as God Sees. What if the metrics you trust most are blinding you to the best possible choice? In 1 Samuel 16, Samuel’s search for Israel’s next king helps us uncover why patience, humility, and a long memory of God’s ways are essential for real discernment. The story refuses our love of polish and speed: seven strong candidates pass by, and the answer arrives late, smaller, and smelling like pasture. That pause—Have we seen all the sons?—becomes a model for leadership, relationships, and everyday decisions that resist convenience in favor of wisdom. Listen in for the full conversation.

Transcript

Time As A Teacher Of Vision

Bishop Wright 0:00

God seems to use time and lifelong experience as ingredients for how God would have us to go and how God would have us to see. So we have to be equipped, one, with a sort of archival sense of how God sees. And that's why these stories are important. If people wonder to themselves, well, I can just get a snippet of the Bible here and there and I'm and off I go, I would say I understand that from an overcrowded life perspective, but I don't know that you're getting the full benefit of the stories.

Melissa 0:40

Welcome to For People with Bishop Rob Wright. I'm your host, Melissa Rau, and this is a conversation inspired by For Faith, a weekly devotion sent out every Friday. You can find a link to this week's For Faith and a link to subscribe in the episode's description. During the season of Lent, Bishop Wright invites all to a five-week Lenten series called We Confess, with weekly video meditations and study guides that frame Lent as a loving turn toward healing, renewal, and hope through honest confession. You can learn more about the series at www.episcopalatlanta.org. Hey, hey, Bishop.

Confession And Alignment With God

Bishop Wright 1:18

Hey, hey.

Melissa 1:19

This week's uh devotion, you say, We confess that we do not see as God sees based on 1 Samuel chapter 16, verses 1 through 13.

Bishop Wright 1:31

That's right. That's right.

Melissa 1:33

You want to like, you know, set this up for us.

Samuel’s Mission And David’s Calling

Bishop Wright 1:36

Sure. Well, I mean, the setup is here we are in the stories of the Old Testament again. We're thinking about that. It's the fourth week in Lent. Uh, we're more than halfway complete through Lent, and we've been talking about we confess, um, uh not as I'm deficient, but uh we confess as that I acknowledge and take responsibility for the ways that I might be out of alignment with God. And so these Old Testament lessons have given us a wonderful occasion to think about that and perhaps uh rededicate ourselves to the way that God would have us to live so that we might experience the fruit of that living. And so here we are. It's Samuel. God gave Samuel, the Old Testament prophet, the kingmaker, uh gave him a mission. And that is, I need to replace Saul, the first king of Israel. So go find me the one that I'm calling to be the second king of Israel. And of course, it's a beautiful story. I highly recommend it. It's in 1 Samuel, first and 2 Samuel, uh, actually. And here's where we get to meet young David before he's the giant killer and before he's the rock and roll king of uh of Israel, that uh that uh the Bible calls the apple of God's eye. But the process to finding David, I think, illumines, at least for many of us, uh, this thing that we don't see as God sees. And life with God and wisdom uh and what I would call Christian maturity is about closing the gap uh between the way that we see, or the way the world sees, or the way we've been acculturated to see, and the way that God sees. The two are not the same. And I think we need to say that out loud, uh, condemning nobody and nothing, but just acknowledge that gap and then interrogate that gap and then wonder for our real lives uh what would it be like in the situations I find myself in to see more like God?

Melissa 3:35

Yeah, which is to see more like God means what exactly.

Waiting As Spiritual Discernment

Bishop Wright 3:41

That's right. That's right. So so Samuel goes uh to Jesse's house, and Jesse's got eight sons. And uh they're they're all handsome, good-looking, sun-kissed fellas, um, and they're older and accomplished fellas. And uh the logic of the day, and even the logic of today, would say, well, pick the oldest one, the one with experience, the one who's got some practice, who's learned some stuff, who's been around, etc., tall and handsome, all of them. Uh, you know, pick those folks, either by sight or by achievement or accomplishment, pick those ones that makes perfect sense, right? And so many of us, nine out of ten, nine and a half out of ten of us, would pick that. But there they go, one after the other, and God says, Nope. Not those, right? And so people scratch their head. And then Samuel does this thing, which I think I want to also underscore here. He waits. He waits. He doesn't just make the choice based on convenience, he waits. And so seeing like God sometimes requires some waiting. And I think that's where many of us get uh it gets a little sticky for um because we want to see as we see and make the decision on our timeline uh and and get on with it. And Samuel uh almost did that. I mean, he could have been really seduced. I mean, there he is at this man's house. He's the spectacle, he's inconveniencing them. He's already rejected seven of his sons. I mean, this is Old Testament hospitality. You know, you don't come to other people's house, make a spectacle of yourself, you know, prolong inconvenience. You don't do it. But he does it because he's waiting. And then finally, finally, finally, finally, he asks the question Have we seen all the sons? Is there yet one more? And then he calls for David, who's out, the shortest one. He's ruddy, uh, probably a little bit of a baby uh to the family. He's out watching uh the uh the herds, and they have to sit down now and wait for this one to come. And I'll just bet, and here's another part I want to underscore, I'll just bet Samuel, having a long lifetime with God, probably giggled to himself. He probably said, Okay, here you go again. I almost forgot that you don't see that I see, and I don't see the way you see. And he probably giggled to himself when David comes in, smelling like the pasture, uh, you know, smaller than everybody else, you know, with acne. Acne, the most inexperienced, socially awkward, clumsy, and God says, Yep, that's the boy right there.

Melissa 6:30

Okay, Bishop. So patience is definitely a virtue that I'm trying to work on. And it just hit me that discernment requires some.

Bishop Wright 6:41

Sure.

Melissa 6:41

Right? So I I gotta be easy on myself because I think I am getting better at that.

Bishop Wright 6:46

Yeah.

Melissa 6:47

And yet I'm just curious. I think so many people are apt to get to the solution or solve the problem. They don't make room for discernment.

Jeopardy Speed Vs. God’s Timing

Bishop Wright 6:55

That's right. That's right. Yeah, I mean, you know, I love playing that TV game show uh called Jeopardy. I like it because it requires two things. It requires you to know an ocean full of trivia. And I don't know why I have so much trivia in my brain. Uh, and it and it and not only that will win the game, but you have to have it uh uh access to this ocean of trivia quickly, right? Quick recall. And and while that's great for Jeopardy, that's not always great for life. And that's not always great for consequential decision making, especially if you're gonna walk with God. And God seems to use time uh and uh and lifelong experience uh as ingredients for how God would have us to go and how God would have us to see. And so we have to be equipped, one, uh, with a sort of archival sense of how God sees. And that's why these stories are important. If people wonder to themselves, well, I can just get a snippet of the Bible here and there and I'm and off I go, I would say I understand that from an overcrowded life perspective, but I don't know that you're getting the full benefit of the stories. The point of the stories is so that you can walk over the contours and then begin to sort of harvest these insights over the last six, eight, ten thousand years that people have tried to live with God and have gleaned something about God. So I would say it's time. Um, I would say it's nuance. Who has God been previously? How has God sort of exerted God's self? What has God whispered in the ears of our spiritual ancestors previously? How might that benefit me at the intersection I find myself at right now? I mean, to make decisions without the information that is readily available to me seems unwise. And to make decisions about um life and spouse and future uh for us who are who are believing people, or to begin relationships or to end relationships, all of that, in my opinion, has to be, I think, uh for us, um has to be really enhanced by by the narratives which are our gift, uh the gift of our tradition.

Melissa 9:10

Yeah, thank thanks for that. Bishop, I'm I'm thinking about what it means to look through the lenses of, say, the glasses of God. Yeah. You know, how how do we do that? I because I'm reminded of a story of how often, and I do this a lot, I try to see people deeply, and I recognize potential, I recognize giftedness, and yet, how often is it when we try to give folks an opportunity um where we judge ourselves based upon our ability to choose correctly, based upon their perfection and their lack thereof, right? Because then they let us down.

Bishop Wright 10:11

I'm just right.

Melissa 10:13

I I don't know. What do we say about the people who are trying to see through the lens of God and then holding themselves to a ridiculous standard?

How To See Through God’s Lens

Bishop Wright 10:24

Well, remember where we started here. We started with the title of this meditation, which is that I confess that I don't see as God sees, which which is implicit in that, of course, is the confession that I have blind spots. So I I have blind spots, and I'm wise if I acknowledge the fact that I have blind spots. Um and and and and it is it is uh it is um it is the lack of humility uh for those of us who think we have no blind spots or we can see the whole field. If if life has taught me anything thus far, is that I don't see the whole field. And uh how I can see the field better, uh, even to see myself better, to say nothing of seeing my neighbor better, is to see if I can try to see how God sees. And so I I think that is the first thing to do. I mean, this humility, right, that's implicit in this. I I realize I can't see at all. I am a human being, I am limited. I have some fancy degrees, I've been to fancy places, I'm not the dimmest bulb in the chandelier, and still I miss, and still I miss. In fact, the definition of the word sin is I miss. And so I think this is where we start. Um, you know, my wife talks a lot about respecting the dignity of every human being. Respect or uh respect means to re-see again, to see again. Uh, and so I think that one of the ways that God blesses us is to help us see situations, see ourselves, see others yet again. And the invitation is always there, see as I see. And sometimes that's just a muscle that has to be strengthened. We have to have some experience of that. I mean, look, uh, we get a lot of things right, and I've learned a lot of things about getting some things right, but I've learned a lot more uh by the things I've gotten wrong.

Melissa 12:15

Yeah, like I wonder if if Samuel was embarrassed to have learned that King David was an absolute mess of a human being.

Humility, Blind Spots, And Re-Seeing

Bishop Wright 12:26

He he may have. He may have. I think he I think he probably as much as we can layer back on those people's uh moments, I think he probably thought two things. I think he probably giggled uh at uh uh at how he was tempted to uh even though he had a long life with God, how even him with this long relationship with God and being close to God. I mean, Samuel was a mystic, Samuel was a prophet, right? Samuel was in regular comedy, Samuel had God's cell phone number, you know. Um I think he probably giggled to himself, wow, I almost blew that, even though I have this long-standing relationship with God, right? Uh so there's that. So, so I mean, none of us are immune, right, to um not seeing the gaps in the way that God would have us to see the gaps, not for condemnation, right? Not for obligation or shaming, but so that we can actually uh live abundantly. Uh, and then we can actually have our decisions that we do make, uh, have them have the benefit of being tested and uh and poked at uh by the wisdom from Scripture. Look, uh we judge in the world, the worldly kingdom, we judge based on really accomplishment, accumulation, and dominance, right? And and yet the kingdom of God judges uh on compassion, fidelity, and neighborliness.

Melissa 13:53

That was a mic drop right there. You want to say that again?

Bishop Wright 13:57

So so so here we are. We're we're we're these we're these kingdom of God people living in kingdom of the world. And so we have two passports, right? Uh so we have that that passport that it makes me a citizen of the kingdom of God, and my earthly passport that says I'm a kingdom of this world. And um, you know, we've got to just, I think every day is a decision. Choose this, choose um choose this day is the way the scripture puts it. Choose this day whom you'll serve. And and I think that um in these real important decisions, in many decisions, all our decisions, frankly speaking, how we do money, how we do time, how we do marriage, how we do death, how we do sickness, how we do compassion, right? How we do our political persuasions, um, what we choose to see, what we fend off from seeing, all of that comes under the microscope of uh I invite you, uh God says, to see as I see.

Melissa 14:56

Right. So it's not that we we do not see as God sees, it's not that we can't see, we just don't.

Kingdom Metrics Vs. Worldly Metrics

Bishop Wright 15:05

I think we don't by definition, right up by default, but I think here, and here's the grace. If people are wondering where's the grace and where's the gift, here it is. It's in the invitation. Come and see as I see, and then more than that, right? Then uh God comes among us as Jesus of Nazareth, right? Not as this nebulous idea of what Christian is that people are manipulating these days to know to the nth degree, but come and see this Jesus of Nazareth, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. See him walk, see him talk, see him have dinner, see him die, see him rise again. I mean, that's what really informs how we see.

Melissa 15:55

Thank you, Bishop, and thank you, listeners. You can follow us on Instagram and Facebook at Bishop Rob Wright, or by visiting www.forpeople.digital. Please subscribe, leave a review, and we'll be back with you next week.