Everyone who lives and breathes will be criticized and all of us will judge someone at some point. It is in our nature to compare ourselves with others and imagine that we are better. It is one of the wrong ways that sinners seek to build self-esteem. We look for flaws in others that we don’t share, point them out to our friends and reassure ourselves with the knowledge that “at least we don’t do that”. Sometimes we will even imagine that someone is committing specific sins without verification. This particular form of conjuring judgment is called projection. Projection gets its name from the sinful act of literally projecting some flaw or wrong behavior onto the reputation of another person. What is most interesting about projection is that the sins we project upon others are the same sins we ourselves are practicing or would practice if we had the chance.
Paul suffered from this sinful behavior from some in the Corinthian church. Competing speakers were looking for a way to discredit him and so recommend themselves.
2 Cor 10:12 we do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise.
It is our tendency to evaluate our world based on the perceptions we have formed from our own experience. We project our inner reality, our perceptions and opinions onto our world. We measure reality by ourselves. We measure the motives and actions of others based on our own beliefs, motives and what we would do in their place. My father used to tell me that our tendency is to “Measure someone else’s corn in our own bushel basket”.
Let’s look a little closer at projection. Projection is assuming that others act or perceive in the same way you do or you would do.
Here is an example: Joe came in from work, walked over to his wife in the kitchen and said, I think the preacher is having an affair. Jane, his wife whirled around and said, you are crazy, why are you saying that? I saw him, Joe said. You saw him, Jane exclaimed, You saw him doing what? I saw him way across town in a tiny restaurant eating with that pretty Louise, the deacon’s wife, Joe said nodding his head. The way they were looking at each other seemed more than just friends. You have concluded that our preacher is having an affair with Louise just because they were eating lunch at a restaurant, Jane angrily asked. What other reason could there be for them to be in a hole in the wall across town?, Joe asked. What you mean is that if it were you there with Louise, that is what would be on your mind, Jane said accusingly. As dumb as Joe was, he knew better than to take the discussion any farther. He knew Jane had seen him staring at Louise from a distance. She had never said anything, but her tone made him realize that she didn’t like his lusting, wandering eyes. Even later that night as he prepared for bed, Joe was still secretly imagining himself sitting across from Louise. A few weeks later, the “affair” came to light when the church threw the preacher’s wife a surprise birthday party with Louise in the lead. As the party ended, the preacher thanked his deacon and wife Louise for their discretion and willingness to meet in secret to plan the party. She didn’t have a clue he said. Jane turned and looked at Joe with fire in her eyes. I am glad I didn’t believe you or tell anyone about your insights about the preacher and Louise. Joe shrugged and said, who really knows?.
When Joe saw the preacher and Louise, his mind immediately imagined them having an affair. His disappointment with his own marriage and his attraction toward Louise had motivated him to conjure what he himself wanted and what he would do if she gave him half a chance. He assumed that the preacher felt the same secret lust that he did about Louise and so he projected his own desire onto the preacher. And the preacher’s guardian angel breathed a sigh of relief and hoped that Joe and Jane would be led to another church.
I embellished this real life example to illustrate the point that we all are tempted to project our own image and ideas on others and we do it far more than we realize. In marriage, each of us has an image of how we want our marriage to work. In fact, we “know” that our image is how marriage is “supposed to work” and your partner needs to get with it. As our children grow older and enter new stages of growth, we imagine them becoming involved in the same sins of youth that derailed our own lives. We project our past experience on them and become so fearful that we over warn and over protect. If we see promising ability in one of them, we project our past potential onto him and push him to fulfill our own missed opportunities. The boy at the door picking up your teenage daughter has only one thing on his mind because you did at his age.
Not only do we project our experiences and ideas on other people but all of us also project our view of the world onto God. We overlay our own ideas over His plan, His promises & the Christian life. Two principles will help us understand how we project our ideas onto God.
1 – We project our view, opinions & feelings of our father/parents on God
Our parents give us our first view of God. To a child, his parents are like God and represent God. How we relate to our children as parents forms their initial views of God.
An angry parent builds a view of an angry and vengeful God into a child’s beliefs.
A busy parent builds a view of a neglectful/unconcerned God. Sometimes called the Watchmaker God, He winds up history and allows it to run without concern for us. The child thinks that God is unconcerned with his daily life and has bigger and better things to do.
A controlling parent presents a controlling God. A child becomes afraid to take initiative or make mistakes.
A depressed parent presents a gloomy, negative God who brings only adversity.
Our children build their views about God based on their relationship with parents, especially with fathers.
2 – We project our own meaning onto God’s plan and promises.
We read in the bible that God has a plan for our lives and His plan provides blessings for those who follow Him. Our tendency is to project our own ideas of what the plan involves. The Jewish population in the 1st century held the view that when Messiah came, He would be a political leader and become king (Jn 6:15; Act 1:6). Even the disciples projected this view onto their relationship with Jesus. Every time Jesus began to explain His death and resurrection, they reacted to His message because they were projecting their own plan on God’s.
We read that our logistics are guaranteed and that God will meet all of our needs (Phil 4:19). We immediately assume that the needs He is promising include all that we want or all to which we have become accustomed. When He brings us up short on some of our wants, we become angry or confused with God because we are projecting our own ideas on God’s.
We read that God wants to bless us (1Pet 5:6) and assume that God’s blessing will take the form of financial prosperity. We fail to realize that the greatest blessings in life are spiritual not material.
Projection is very common to all of us. We overlay our ideas upon God, His plan and what He means by meeting our needs and blessing us. We read our own ideas into the word and pray for God to honor His promises, according to our overlay. We judge others by projecting our flaws and failures on them.
As we become aware of our own inner dialogue and the images we make within our souls, the Holy Spirit will reveal to us how we project our own ideas onto our world. As God brings His training program into full swing in our lives, He will begin to break down our egocentric illusions and build humility in us. As we progress, our tendency to use our own ideas to evaluate everyone else diminishes and the freedom to use God’s ideas increases. We grow in our ability to accept others as they are and leave their sins and their growth in God’s capable hands. Resist the urge to project yourself on others and allow God to project Himself into you.
