We’re Less Impressive in the Flesh

It’s a resounding truth that we build people up who we’ve never met before and we can only be disappointed (or relieved) when we meet them finally, face to face.

It seems there were at least some in the Corinthian church who were less than impressed with the apostle Paul in the flesh. The Paul said sarcastically to them, “I appeal to you—I, Paul, who am ‘timid’ when face to face with you, but ‘bold’ when away!” -2 Corinthians 10:1b (NIV).

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Both letters from Paul to those in ancient Corinth are full of references to this insinuation.

And it is the same for us. Our minds and imaginations make much of people that they can’t possibly live up to. Again, we’re either disappointed or relieved that they’re ‘human’ after all!

The classic illustration is written communication versus face to face communications. Say we interact with someone over emails and they’re proficient using this media. Email is such a popular medium these days. Later, we meet them face to face and they make the odd off-handed remark, and they are lessened in our estimations; we couldn’t ‘read’ that in them in the email communications.

That’s why face to face meetings are always the best way to communicate. What you see is [closer to] what you get. Of course, there are still communications anomalies no matter how we communicate because there is no way of getting inside someone else’s mind and heart.

It’s good to train ourselves to not expect too much in people we’ve not met face to face. It’s nice to be pleasantly surprised rather than disappointed.

And it bodes well in truth to stick to the facts about people, based in our observation of them rather than hearsay or perception.

Copyright © 2008, S. J. Wickham. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.