SEEING or hearing ISN'T THE BEST TEST FOR WHAT'S TRUE--By Christine Lindsay

What do you see--a pretty young woman or an old hag?

Funny how we can look at an object and not see what it really is. You remember that old illusion test—is it a picture of a pretty young woman with a feather on her hood, or is it an old hag with a large nose and chin? Once my brain is set on either one of those images, it’s nearly hopeless to see the other possibility.

It takes time for my brain to switch over. 

Something similar happened once, only it was with what I was hearing. Years ago my husband and I took our kids camping, and as I lay in the tent that night I thought how sad the park was so close to a rushing highway. That non-stop traffic kept me awake.

It took me hours to realize that what I thought was a freeway of cars whizzing by, was in fact a rushing mountain river of recently melted snows. I was just too stressed out from overwork at the time that I failed to see the truth. Once I did see the truth, what had been keeping me awake turned into the lullaby that lulled me asleep. What a rest that soothing mental image gave me. 

It took time and rest for my brain to switch over.

Skip ahead with me twenty-some years. Same thing happened to me again just last night.

Same reason too—I’ve been overworked for an extended period of time. That happens when you’re a workaholic like me.

I’ve been trying to change that about myself, and one of the ways to conquer that trait is to spend more quality time with my husband camping in our trailer. But as I sat out in the twilight watching the swallows flit in the evening air, I again thought I heard traffic. This time though, it didn’t take me as long to twig on to the fact that what I was really hearing was a rushing stream on the mountain behind us.

Life can be like that for so many of us. We’re just so stressed with the mundane, the pressure of work, the rushing to and fro that we fail to give our minds a rest. That’s when we must find those things that give our brains a rest, so that we don’t see something different in what we're staring at or listening to. 

As a writer of Christian fiction that’s what I try to do with the stories I tell. Take my readers on a trip that will not only give their minds a rest, but perhaps show them something that they had never seen before. Some truth that has been staring them in the face that they have yet to see. 

Better yet, if we have some rest and look into the Word of God, we may see something the way the Lord sees it. 

Award-Winning Author Christine Lindsay

Christine Lindsay makes her home in British Columbia, on the west coast of Canada with her husband and their grown up family. Her cat Scottie is chief editor on all her books.

Christine would love to connect with you on her website www.ChristineLindsay.com, or follow her on Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest

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