The Invisible Gorilla is a book co-authored by cognitive psychologists Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris. It was published in 2010 and is based on a psychological experiment of the same name that they conducted at Harvard University in 1999.
They asked several subjects to watch a video of six persons passing a basketball around and around. Three persons were in white shirts and three in black shirts. The observers were asked to silently count the number of times the persons in the white shirts passed the ball. Not a hard task at all. Midway during the video a gorilla (actor in a suit) strolled into the midst of the group and beat its chest before walking off; a total of nine seconds. Now you would think that the persons watching the video would have noticed and been surprised by this, right?
WRONG! The report revealed that 50% of the participants completely missed the gorilla, it was as if it were invisible.
BLINDINGLY OBVIOUS
Have you ever read an Old Testament account of the Israelites failing to obey or trust God and winding up in some great predicament begging God to spare their lives? After reading such an account are you left wondering how on earth could they have been so short sighted, faithless and down right dumb? To us looking back at their lives, hindsight, the goodness and saving grace of God is blindingly obvious. How could they not see it?
Well, we are the exact same way. There are so many activities going on in our lives at any given time and we make decisions on what to focus on from one moment to the next, what our priorities are. Sometimes our gazes stay fixed on all the negativity that surrounds us, other times it’s all the items and amenities that we lack. Some people focus on the flaws and failings of the people they’ve been ‘stuck with’ such as their parents, spouse and children. Whilst we are focusing on these things God’s goodness dressed in a big hairy gorilla suit is waltzing up and down, beating its chest and yet being completely ignored by the majority of us.
INATTENTIONAL BLINDNESS
The experiment described above has become one of the best known psychological experiments. It highlights two main things; our inability to notice what’s right in front of us when we are focused on something else (inattentional blindness) and our ignorance of the fact that we are missing out on a lot.
Another experiment was conducted at Harvard medical school. Twenty four radiologists were asked to view scans to detect lung-nodules. The image of a gorilla 48 times larger than the nodules was inserted into the final case. Eye tracking software showed that all participants looked at the spot at which the gorilla was located and yet 83% of the radiologists failed to see the gorilla. It wasn’t what they were looking for.
When Jesus was here on earth He performed miracles, signs and wonders in front of multitudes but the Pharisees and religious leaders were so blinded by their legalism and religious assumptions that they failed to see the gorilla. They were in pursuit of and waiting for the Messiah yet when He arrived and was among them daily, their perceptions of what the Messiah should be rendered them blind.
How often have our preconceived notions left us completely clueless to what God is doing in our lives and the lives of those around us?
FIX IT JESUS
Have you ever prayed such a prayer?
In times of crisis and great stress we can become so laser focused on the problem in the form in which we present it to the Lord that we are blind to the advancement He is making overall on our behalf. We cry out to God for our broken marriage and look to check off improvements based on our list and completely miss the acts of kindness and care that our spouse has been trying to display. You beg God to save your wayward child and draw him or her closer to Him but because their academic performance still leaves much to be desired you overlook entirely the manners being displayed, the increased time spent with the family and the decrease in the quarrels with siblings.
Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil. Proverbs chapter 3 verse 7
We very often do ourselves a disservice in thinking that we know God and His ways and then end up fighting (and unfortunately succumbing) to great disappointment when He doesn’t live up to our expectations. We are told not to be wise in our own eyes, do away with what we think we know about God and dive into His word to find out who He truly is. When we allow ourselves to become more spiritually open minded by the power of the Holy Spirit and scripture we will have far less invisible gorilla moments in our lives.
Danelle M. Pinnock first emerged as a writer when she began chronicling her journey with God, through a debilitating sickness. Her authentic reflections provided encouragement to many and resulted in her first publication “31 Day Devotional- Quiet Time.”
This full time homemaker, a proud Jamaican, lives in Kingston with her husband Raul and their two children Levi and Zhuri. Along with her freelance writing, she is a worship leader at her church where her husband, a cancer survivor, serves as a deacon.
Follow her on Instagram @danellewritesstuff to learn how God guides a woman with a background in Chemistry, Business Management and Public Health to skillfully pen His methods and His ways through sickness, marriage and parenting.