In 1952 a massive earthquake shook California's San Joaquin Valley. The 7.3 quake killed a dozen people and caused sixty million dollars in property damage. In less than a minute. Years ago I visited with an elderly farmer who was in his field when the quake hit. "I'll never forget," he told me, "The ground rolled under my feet and rows of crops shifted in front of me. What had been a row of corn so far as the eye could see was now a row of corn and squash."

But back to the earthquake in a moment.

Whether we're conscious of them or not, we all think and act--perhaps react is the better word--according to a set of personal assumptions and perceptions. The lens through which we view our world is often called a paradigm. We have paradigms around our identity; our performance; our worth; our roles; our family, friends, and acquaintances; and more.

Paradigms, like habits, can be helpful. Except when they're not.

Our adopted paradigms--formed by nature and by nurture--are capable of distorting our perception and response. These paradigms, in time, may become so powerful, so deeply ingrained, that we assume them to be objective truth. We may develop what therapists call a confirmation bias: a tendency to interpret everything we experience as affirmation of our paradigms. Rather tragicomically, then, the very paradigms that we created essentially return the favor and become our creator, shaping our personal narrative, our thoughts and behavior.

Now back to the earthquake.

Sometimes it takes an event of seismic proportion to shift a paradigm, like the earthquake that shifted the crops in the field. An emotional upheaval that rocks our world and restores perspective.  

But short of calamity, is there a way to recognize faulty paradigms? We may have insufficient distance and clarity for an intellectual self-assessment; but, in reality, the depth of wisdom required to evaluate our paradigms is not based upon what we know. Deeper wisdom is relational. The most accurate measure of spiritual wisdom--and, therefore, of our paradigms--is the fruit of the Spirit: the relational qualities of love, joy, and peace; patience, kindness, and goodness; faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The quality of our relationships reflects the quality of our paradigms.   

How accurate then are the paradigms, the perceptions, that order your world? Check in with those closest to you. How healthy are your relationships? 

What do you see in the image above? A black silhouette? A white silhouette? It depends upon what you are looking for. We tend to see what we expect to see. And that's a paradigm!