A friend sent this by email to me. Don't know where it came from or who deserves the credit (or blame) for it. Could be the result or part of some great scientific experiment or the result of one with too much time on his/her hands. Anyway, see what you can do with this ...
Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can.
I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulacily uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to resarech at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are; the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig, huh?
I'll tell you why I was struck by this exercise... I celebrate the amazing capability of our minds and I am intrigued by the implications and possibly transferrable 'truths' to the work of our spirit ... or 'reading' moments, circumstances, relationships. How incredible it is indeed that eyes can see scrambled letters and the mind not only reads them as if they weren't, but wraps itself around the concept that they represent!
Jesus, when questioned about the greatest commandment, quoted the Shema which is found in Deuteronomy 6:4-5. Only, he added to it. (Gasp!) Jesus tells us that we are to love God will all our heart, soul, MIND, and strength. (Mark 12:28-31) To love God with my mind is not dependent on understanding everything I hear or read or experience of God (and that's a good thing!). If this business of understanding mixed-up words translates to the work of my spiritual mind, then there's hope! And, I guess for you, too! I can come to understand God in Divine fullness even if I can't explain or immediately identify all of God's expressions and revelations. That journey toward understanding requires practice and stretching and, at times, a little discomfort. Foundationally, it requires faith - trust that God wants to be known by us and trust that knowing God adds to our existence. (I happen to believe that knowing God IS life.) And, if you happen to believe, like me, that God made each of us on purpose, with purpose, then we should acknowledge that God is not surprised (but, rather, tickled!) by this amazing feat of the mind to be able to see unclearly, but understand with conviction.
At least one difficulty in adding faith practice or spirit to the working of the mind is that we practice mistrust so much in our everyday living. I mistrust you because someone like you hurt me once - intentionally or unintentionally, the wound is still unforgettable. You mistrust me because you question your own ability to accurately perceive the circumstances of the moment due to the fact you misread someone else at another time.
Where does all this wondering and wandering lead me? My heart breaks over the inability or unwillingness of many supposed spiritual leaders in my community to see - clearly or conceptually - the reality of this second poorest county (economincally) in the state of Tennessee. So, can you teach someone how to read jumbled up letters or jumbled up lives and see the bigger picture? Can you see unemployment, hopelessness, poverty, lack of education, exclusion and marginalization of God's children and envision spiritual health, wealth, and hope? Today, I'm not so sure ... except that it seems God wired us with the capability. Maybe we just haven't decided to try.
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