Seeing People.
A question that has been stirring with me lately has been how
How do I see people? Do I look at individuals through their actions or do I really try and see people for who they are. What brought this up one might ask? A motive search got me to this.
What would it be like to look at a person and see that person for who God created them to be instead of looking at them through their actions? The majority of people I think look at others in this manner. And I know it’s hard not to do this because I feel like a lot of people out their look at themselves in this way as well. Why is it so hard to Love people?
I went as a chaperone with my churches youth group to a rather large event with about 20,000 youth there. On the second night of the conference the speaker said a lot of moving things and he was so very real with his motives for being there and speaking. At one point he said “he was tired and missed his wife and wanted to go home” this was in the middle of a call to those who wanted to know Jesus that didn’t. At that moment I saw the closest thing to reality I had ever seen in an individual. He was speaking to God in such a personal way. I was shaken by how real he was at that moment. The next thing he said was that “he couldn’t go home because if you didn’t know Jesus you had to know him”. It was at that point that I began to search my motives for the things I do.
I say that I love God, but do I love His people do I have that desire to see them as he sees them or am I happy looking through there sin instead of his glory? It’s a painful question to ask. At the moment when I saw this man (the speaker) broken and tiered and crying out to God, in this moment of the most real brokenness I have ever seen, I wanted so much to be in his position. I wanted so much to be as nothing in the sight of my king.
The speaker genuinely cared and loved all 20,000 people he was speaking too. But what I realized was that in myself I have not the ability to love unlovely people. I see people through the eyes of sin because those are the eyes that I have (we have), so how is it possibly for a person to love and care for others as God does? How is it possible for me an unlovely person to in turn see another person for how they really are, a hurting individual that feels alone in a crowded room, and a person that puts on a front to people so that they can function day to day. It simple He enables us to see, Otherwise blindness is our greatest downfall
Looking through the eyes of Jesus can be a painfully beautiful experience. Painful in the since that you can see people. All the hurt they carry all the bitterness that holds them down, all the crutches that they use to stand from day to day. It will break your heart in the moment of just a glimpse; the beauty of looking through his eyes is that you can see the image in which they were created, an image of grace and mercy that is a reflection of the one who has created them. A friend of mine said to love someone is to make much of them. (And I am sure that he heard it somewhere else) but its true and its real. Jesus made much of us by sacrificing himself in our stead; Because He sees our potential as his creation. I want to finish with just a thought.
Imagine If we those who are called by his name made much of others…. If we ask God to let us see our brothers and sisters as he sees them.
How do you want to see people?
posted by Travis @ 2:13 PM
2 Comments:
Good thoughts.
We need to see the potential in people.
And, I don't mean it like people talk about other's athletic potential or academic potential. It is not like our mammoth public education system that is always talking about helping kids reach their potential through educational training, guidance counseling, etc. One problem with this (besides the main one that I will explore)is that some people have more athletic/academic potential than others. A 4'0" person does not have a lot of potential to excel in basketball, though they could.
What I am talking about is that we need to see the potential in every person to be fully human.
I don't think that God is so interested in making us into "Christians" as He is in making us to be fully human, into the kind of people He originally created us to be, the kind of people that He called "good". Granted that can only take place through Jesus Christ, but think about it.
Every human being has the potential to be fully human. We have a low view of humanity. We make comments like "sorry, I messed up; I'm only human." As if, our humanity was a bad thing, or something holding us back. But, we are made in the image of God; God made us human and He called it "good." I think sin is like a disease infecting our humanness; whereas we speak of sin and humanity as synonomous.
We need to see people not for who they are but for who they could be. We need to look beyond what is and see what could be, to see the kind of person God created them to be. I think this is why Jesus died for us, so that we could be the kind of people God created us to be--people of passion for Him, people who just love Him so much that we worship Him and have fellowship with Him.
Every person can know this; every person can be this; every person can do this. We cannot be God; we will never even be a little god. But, we bear the image of God, the life-giving breath of His Spirit and His potential lives in all of us.
Lord, please, help us to see this in others. May we never give up on people. As long as they are human, they can be fully human.
I think you make an interesting point "May we never give up on people" is that what God is calling us to do when he says love your Neighbor as yourselves? Is it giving up on other people thats the problem or is it protecting ourselves that is the problem? I think that the reason that we sometimes "give up on people" is that we are afraid to let the person in again after they have hurt us. I thought of this after reading the post again.. I think that is what the youth of today have a problem with. They start off trusting everybody that comes along and they get hurt over and over again, so they eventually "close shop" so to speak. and then someone comes along and says God isn't like this. you don,t have to be fake with him because He has been through what you have and he will not hurt you the way others have, its a big pill for them to swallow. I don't really know if this is more of a response to your blog comment or to wed night service, but I think that wed night service planted a seed in alot of young people....
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