I was talking with one of my friends about some of the trigger malfunctions of perceptions, and he responded with this illustration.  I just love it!

He said that it sounds like the formation of a diamond.  Someone speculate s about a person’s motive. Then they think they see other actions with the same motive.  Then they think they see additional actions and still more actions with that same motive.  And they keep piling on to their theory.  And the pile grows heavier and heavier.  And the time grows longer and longer. So the pressure grows greater and greater. And the speculated ‘motive’ seems to become more and more solidified.  And with all the things piled on and the pressure that creates and the time passing, it seems like something hard is forming.  It becomes so solid that it seems to be true.  It seems that out of a little bit of carbon, a diamond seems to be forming.  And it seems to be so hard under all the things piled on and time passed and pressure that has built, that it seems to be rock solid.

And so we end up confronting people on these things that seem rock solid.

Think about how often this has occurred in the world!  How often has a speculation become seemingly rock solid?  Someone speculated that the earth was flat, and for years, that is what was taught and believed as fact.  Not too long ago, people speculated that those of certain skin colors were more or less superior to other people. And they thought they saw actions that supported the theories, so the theories seemed to become more and more rock solid until they became to be believed as truths. And for years, that is what was taught and believed as fact.

But it was not true of God’s creations.

The seeming rock solid truth was really a bunch of misperceptions and untrue thoughts piled and piled and hardened to form a seeming truth.

Though they seemed rock solid, the lattice of ‘facts’ holding the ‘truth’ together was not.  Like a diamond, they seem hard but their bonds were actually somewhat weak.

This is kind of fascinating – diamonds are one of the hardest things we know of.  Graphite, which is made up of the same stuff that diamonds are (carbon), is softer than diamonds (think pencil lead).  Even though diamonds are harder, graphite holds up better under fire.  Weird, huh?  This is because diamonds’ carbon-to-carbon bonds are weaker than graphite’s carbon-to-carbon bonds, so oxygen can separate the carbon molecules of diamonds more easily than it can those of graphite.

This means that if your diamond rings were to burn on a lump of graphite, you would end up with a lump of gold from the ring sitting on the lump of graphite… but the diamond would be gone forever as a carbon+oxygen combo: carbon dioxide.

Fascinating.

Lavoisier, the father of modern chemistry (he discovered that water is made of hydrogen and oxygen), put a diamond in jar of oxygen.  He focused a ray of sunlight on the diamond via a special (enormous) magnifying glass, and poof!  It became CO₂ and disappeared.

Crazy, huh?  Crazy that a diamond, which seems so rock solid, can literally vaporize with some strong light.

So these perceptions that we may have of another person that seem rock solid… are they?  If some Sonlight {I couldn’t resist : )} is focused on them, will they remain as solid as they seem to be?  Or will their hardness dissipate under the Light?