Perceptual Frames

Mark Batterson post:  Voyage of the Dawn Treader

I’ve always been a huge C.S. Lewis fan. He was a rare combination of right-brain creativity and left-brain logic. And who doesn’t love the Chronicles of Narnia, the book and the movie.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader DVD releases on April 8. Just thought I’d share a thought from a very metaphorical movie. It’s a must-see.

My favorite moment in the movie is when the framed picture of a ship on the high seas becomes a porthole and water starts flooding the room through the frame. That frame is a portal to another world—the world of Narnia. The frame is the difference between Edmund being a kid and a king.

Lucy and Edmund and their cousin Eustace, go through the frame, step into the picture, and find themselves in a totally different reality called Narnia. I know that’s fiction. But it’s a picture of the importance of our perceptual frames. Our perceptual frames are portals. Our perceptual frames eventually become our reality. We don’t see the world as it is. We see the world as we are. And the way we see the world shapes the world. Our perceptual frames become self-fulfilling prophecies. If you frame the world the wrong way, you become the wrong person. If you frame the world with faith, that becomes your reality! That is what happens to Edmund. The frame becomes the reality.

Are you allowing your circumstances to frame God? Or is your faith in God framing your circumstances? The choice is yours.