The 10 Percent

A few years ago on this date, I was the guy sitting in a doctor's office as he delivered bad news. You can read more about that struggle here if you like. Suffice it to say, I spent the better half of a year thinking the right side of my face would be paralyzed for the rest of my life, which would cause me to lose half my eyesight and half my hearing. Today, I've regained somewhere around 90 percent of muscle function in the right side of my face. I have some hearing loss, but no blindness. God has been good to me. 

I find it amazing that despite the amazing thing God has done, I still struggle with only seeing the 10 percent. Any time someone hands me a picture, I'm disappointed. I used to have a great smile. Now it's crooked. One eye is bigger than the other. My forehead wrinkles just a little bit funny. I get frustrated with the hearing loss because it affects me in crowded restaurants, and makes it hard to pay attention to people I'm with. I notice the 10 percent, and it really bothers me sometimes. 

The thing is, nobody else notices the 10 percent. My wife doesn't notice the 10 percent. Friends who knew me prior to Ramsay Hunt don't notice the 10 percent, even when they haven't seen me in a decade. My self-perception is completely different from what other people see. 

Self-perception is that way in a lot of areas. We always feel like we look fatter or thinner than we actually are. We think we're more or less talented than we actually are. And we feel as though our shortcomings before God and before others are greater or lesser than they actually are.

We all need people in our life who will clarify reality for us, because we can't ever truly see it on our own. We need people to clear up our wrong perceptions of ourselves and our situations. We need people who can see us clearly, and who have the courage (and grace) to tell us what they see. We need people who will calm us down about the 10 percent we worry about, and refocus our mind on the 10 percent we should worry about. 

Do you have people like that in your life? If not, you need to find them - at least one. Reality is too important to miss.