August 30, 2026
“To Exist or to Exit” Photo by LKV Walsh
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I teach it to others every semester, and I know it well myself. And I can still get caught. Confirmation bias is our seeing what we want to see…what we expect to see. For example, the image above. Read it. Read it again. Maybe a third time. Most people will see a sign that alerts us timber trucks are exiting. But it is not. It is a sign that, perhaps ironically and perhaps not, tells us only that timber trucks are existing nearby. Even seeing that the first or second time, we don’t trust ourselves. It is so “normal” to expect a timber truck to EXIT that we can’t really believe our eyes when they (rightly) see the timber trucks in this neck of the words are merely existing. I had to look and look and look again. Then I took a picture to prove it to myself. Confirmation bias.
So what happens when we don’t believe we are loved by God? What happens when we are told God cannot love people who act like us, think like us, believe like us or love like us? Well, mostly, we believe it. And as we walk around the world, our brains automatically collect evidence that supports the belief. We see with greater ease and deeper recognition any message that says we are NOT lovable. And the messages that say we absolutely are lovable – by God and by others – we struggle to see, to hear, and to know. These messages do not confirm what we have been taught and what we hold true, so they are somewhat or completely invisible even when right in front of our eyes.
In the lectionary traditions today, the reading from the Hebrew Bible begins: “You duped me, oh Lord, and I let myself be duped.” In my experience, only the latter is true. My brain believes what it wants to believe unless I am watching it diligently. And what my brain wants to believe is based not on messages from a loving Divine, but from voices that pretend to speak for that loving Divine so that they can feel like they have power. But knowing that my brain does this means I can fight back. I can choose to stop and look twice…even three times. I can ask myself if what I am hearing and seeing is consistent with a message and ministry of love. If it is not, I can slow down and ask myself to look again. I can ask myself to take note: are things existing…or are they exiting? And which will I do as well?
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