Last Wednesday, we ended with the challenge to consider making eye contact with strangers, in particular with people in need due to poverty or other personal crises.
What do we see when we look into the eyes of strangers?
Do we see someone in the way?
Do we see a threat to our comfort zone?
Do we someone who pricks our conscience?
Do we see another person created in the image of God?
Do we see a father, brother, mother, daughter, son or sister?
Do we see another person who needs the love of our Savior and the embrace of His Church?
Do we see someone who reminds us that we might have neglected a part of our commission to love others as we love ourselves?
When we look into the eyes of a stranger, do we see that we could be in their place but for the grace of God that led us along a different path? Do we see that we are not all so different after all?
What difference would it make if we saw strangers along our path as Christ sees us?
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3 comments:
When I was growing up, I was friends with a girl. She was shy, funny and she was poor. Her home had no heat, no air conditioning. There were holes in the floor and walls where bugs, rodents and snakes would crawl into the house. There was open sewer coming from both the bathroom and kitchen. Her family was at one point so poor, they were down to one bag of egg noodles and a jar of dried broth cubes for food. Her father was neglectful and abusive. Her mother repeatedly begged the girl's grandparents for money. By the age of three she had been molested by a great uncle who had also molested both her mother and her grandmother. Her family repeatedly and with malice told her how stupid and worthless she was. They told her again and again she would never graduate from school, she was too stupid to drive, she could never hold down a job and she would never be able to live on her own because of her naive thoughts, weak body and stupid brain. The girl dared not say a word of the situation to anyone for fear of abuse. Her life was fear, depression and secrets. Every single day this girl would pray and petition God to take her life and remove her from the hopeless situation she was in. Through years of this, the girl became ill. Her family would make fun of her calling her a hypochondriac. They would regularly ask,"what crawled up you and died?". There came a day in the spring of 1997 that this girl's illness over took any fear of abuse. She was too sick to get out of bed. Her family finally decided that she should be taken to the emergency room. The following morning a surgeon did exploratory surgery on the girl. Through the tiny cameras he put inside her, only blackness could be seen. No organs, just murky blackness. The surgeon immediately cut a twelve inch incision down the girl's stomach. As he looked inside the girl's abdominal cavity he found rotting organs, pounds of infection, blood, feces,scarring, cysts and ulcers.
How mad did this story make you? How angry did you feel reading this? Did you think to yourself,"Oh, that girl could go and flip burgers to get out of this situation?" OR did you think to yourself,"That is a hopeless situation that is bound to repeat itself."?
After the girl woke up from surgery she decided she would do whatever she had to to make sure she did not repeat this pattern. It took something this huge and drastic for her to realize that the poverty thought process of her life could be changed. This girl knew God had a bigger plan, a better plan for her. Her past did not have to dictate her future. She did not have to give over to the cycle of hopelessness and poverty. SHE could breakout of the destructive pattern that held her family captive for so long.
This girl is not a nameless faceless story. This girl was rasied by a "christian" family. This girl is someone you go to church with. Someone that you have sat next to, walked by and talked with.
This girl is me.
It is my first hand experience that allows me to tell you that helping just one person makes a difference. It is my first hand knowledge that allows me say, STOP trying to be God. Stop trying to judge someone's worthiness. God has judged YOU worthy to send his son to die for the sins you continue to commit every single day of your life. You and I can NEVER do too much or give too much to EVER exceed the amount we have been given and forgiven because of God's grace.Will you then judge someone, anyone unworthy of the blessings God has entrusted to you? People surrounding you everyday cry out for YOUR help in a multitude of ways. God doesn't want you to coldly assess a person's need. Give like Jesus. BE Jesus to EVERYONE you come in contact with. Give until it hurts and then give more.
Deanne,
Thank you for your openness and transparency. I can only assume it wasn't easy to share this part of your story. I am grateful that God sees you the way He does and is using you for His purposes. I believe that God will continue to use your dark past to bring light to others. May we be humbled and challenged to see everyone as Christ does and to love them just the same!
Dear Sweet Deanne - thank you for your courage and hope in sharing your story. You are one brave woman who has a strong testimony of God's faithfulness. Thank you for encouraging us to see people as God sees them and to quit judging based on our limited and often inaccurate perceptions of others. Let us all strive to be Jesus! To God be the glory.
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