http://anchor.tfionline.com/post/seeing-through-eyes-jesus/
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God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.—1 Samuel 16:71
*
Pulling my car into the drive-thru line at Starbucks … I saw the woman. She sat across the parking lot, leaving just enough room for a thoroughfare, as she too was waiting in the Starbucks line. I smiled, and gestured to her. It went something like this: “Are you next, or am I?” Really, I was fine either way.
She was not. Thinking I was trying to snag her spot of next up, she gunned her Suburban, rolled down the window, and let out a string of expletives that made me blush.
“Go ahead, please,” I said. “I wasn’t sure who was first.”
She didn’t buy it. She continued with the name calling without taking a breath. …
Then something really strange happened. Instead of getting mad or yelling back at her, a sense of empathy invaded me. I looked at her again, and this time I saw someone different, someone who wrenched my heart. Her eyes were red and puffy. Her hair was pulled back in a natty ponytail. She held her phone in her palm, glancing down at it every few seconds. And she was driving that big ol’ gas hog of a Suburban, my own car of choice when I had three kids at home and a carpool.
Dear God. I was looking at myself ten years ago. Same car, same ponytail. Same frustration. We’ve all been there. Dog vomits on the sofa. Both kids have strep throat. The garbage disposal chooses today to break, when you are trying to disintegrate moldy fridge leftovers. Husband is mad because you forgot to pick up the dry cleaning and he’s going on a business trip. Sound familiar? …
She gunned forward, just to show me that she could.
I left her a wide berth, smiled at her splotchy face. She shot me a sideways scowl. …
Pulling up to the loudspeaker behind her, I said “I want to pay for whatever the woman in front of me has ordered. And please tell her I hope she has a better day.” I meant every word.
The woman idled in front of me for a good four minutes, talking to the barista who had leaned out the window. She shook her head and handed over a bill. She drove around the side of the building slowly, this time no gunning. Hmmm.
“No takers, huh?” I said to the barista as I pulled forward.
“Nope. She said she couldn’t believe you wanted to pay for her drink after all the names she called you. She said she couldn’t allow it, and said to tell you she was sorry. She felt really bad.”
“Did you tell her I hoped she had a better day?”
“Yep. She said thanks—that she already was.”
“Good to hear.” I smiled and handed her a dollar to put in the tip jar.
As I drove away, I began to cry. Not because I had been called so many terrible names, but because God had answered my very recent prayer—which was that He would allow me to see people as He sees them, not as I see them. That I might be able to see the hurting inside, instead of just the hurtful outside. And maybe a few tears were of gratitude and amazement that He always shows up with an answer when I sincerely ask.—Susan Basham2
*
The scripture makes it abundantly clear: “God saved you by his grace… [Why? Because] We are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago” (Ephesians 2:8–10). Paul makes it clear that it was a gift from God, not something you did for yourself. God did this because He still sees that work of art He created us to be.
So why do we struggle to treat people like the immensely valuable, one-of-a-kind masterpiece God created with His own hand? As I study the life and interactions of Jesus with very sin-stained, muddied people, it becomes evident that Jesus could see something worth dying for in all people He encountered. Jesus could see past the mud of sin to the masterpiece God wanted to restore.
What do you see most when you encounter sin-stained people? What do you see when you look in the mirror? Do you see the mud? Or do you see the masterpiece God wants to restore? What you focus on determines who you become and the impact you have on people around you! …
Jesus demonstrated a spiritual vision that He wants to impart to us—to see the masterpiece He sees in us, and to renovate us to become people whose hearts reflect what God sees, even in the muddiest, sin-stained life. Jesus saw God’s masterpiece, waiting to be revealed by His grace, and as a result, many people actually became what He envisioned. What do you envision, even for the muddiest human you encounter?—John Burke3
*
God asks that we value every individual, that we see humankind through His eyes of love, which means that we will look at others without bias, prejudice, or preconceived negative opinions. By embracing God’s perspective and seeing others as He does, we will avoid stereotyping people, or thinking of ourselves as better than others.
Understanding that God unconditionally loves all human beings and that His love knows no boundaries of race, creed, or status, guides our attitudes about others, especially those who are different from us in some ways.
Our commission as disciples, as those who walk in the Master’s footsteps, is to show the same love to others that Jesus showed.
We are meant to value and show respect to every person. Each person on earth is God’s creation just as we are, and God loves them just as He loves us. If we are following in Jesus’ footsteps, we won’t think other people are “below” us or inferior to us, no matter what their circumstances are. We are all equal in God’s eyes.—Peter Amsterdam
*
Reframing. I like that word. … It’s a terrific concept in the way it suggests that a situation, an event, a problem or a challenge can be viewed and understood in a variety of ways. When faced with a dilemma, we often see it in only one way, with only traditional options, none of which may be satisfactory.
Reframing is the creative and very helpful process of looking at something in a different light, from a very different perspective. And with that change in perspective come different solutions.
Reframing is a private, individual task: it is based on a creative alteration of one’s understanding of a situation, not modification of somebody else’s behavior or feelings. Reframing is something we do in the quiet holiness of our own hearts. It requires a thirst for insight. It insists on an openness to very new ideas. It mandates willingness to change.
And reframing often requires some real courage. It’s easy to try to change others. It’s much more difficult to try to change the way we perceive the world. But what a healthy, helpful exercise! One in which the world won’t change at all. But we will.—Robert A. Alper4
*
Jesus was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.
Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.”5
“Seeing the people…” This word “seeing” means to notice something with perception. He noticed the reality of what was happening around him. … It is very difficult for us to do that. We get so busy and caught up in what we’re doing that life happens around us and we don’t even notice. But Jesus paid attention to what was going on. And perceiving what was going on with the people, he was moved with compassion. Compassion is a great word that comes from the same root as our word intestines.6 Down in his gut he had this incredible compassionate feeling about what he saw.
What was it that Jesus saw? First of all, he saw hurting people. His compassion was poured out to them “because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.”7 … [W]hen Jesus looked around, he saw past the surface issues of life, even beyond the physical needs, deep into the hearts of people. He saw people who were broken down and hurting, not able to answer questions about what life was all about, and feeling like they were in it all alone. That sounds like a picture of our world, doesn’t it?
But that’s not all Jesus saw. He also saw a plentiful harvest. … [H]e understood that what these people needed was hope, a sense that there was something they could have faith in, something that could meet the deepest needs of their heart. That was the gospel of the kingdom. So there was hope to be given to hurting, downcast, distressed people, and the hope was in who he was—the Messiah, who had come to set people free from the bondage of sin.
Jesus saw people. He noticed. He paid attention. And out of that a heart of compassion sprang into action to minister. He called his disciples to pray and be involved that way, and that’s what he is calling us to do. He is calling us to be men and women who can see the world we live in, perceive the needs, pray for God to raise up people to meet the needs, and then ourselves become part of the answer by being engaged in the wonderful harvest that’s out there.—Danny Hall8
Published on Anchor October 2014. Read by Debra Lee.
Footnotes:
1 NASB.
2 http://stdominicgrace.wordpress.com/2013/09/23/she-yelled-and-called-me-names.
3 http://www.johnburkeonline.com/seeing-through-the-eyes-of-jesus.
4 Life Doesn’t Get Any Better Than This: The Holiness of Little Daily Dramas (Liguori Publications, 1996).
5 Matthew 9:35–38 NASB.
6 See https://bible.org/illustration/god%E2%80%99s-compassion.
7 Matthew 9:36 NASB.
8 http://www.pbc.org/system/message_files/14668/14667_4853.html.
Pulling my car into the drive-thru line at Starbucks … I saw the woman. She sat across the parking lot, leaving just enough room for a thoroughfare, as she too was waiting in the Starbucks line. I smiled, and gestured to her. It went something like this: “Are you next, or am I?” Really, I was fine either way.
She was not. Thinking I was trying to snag her spot of next up, she gunned her Suburban, rolled down the window, and let out a string of expletives that made me blush.
“Go ahead, please,” I said. “I wasn’t sure who was first.”
She didn’t buy it. She continued with the name calling without taking a breath. …
Then something really strange happened. Instead of getting mad or yelling back at her, a sense of empathy invaded me. I looked at her again, and this time I saw someone different, someone who wrenched my heart. Her eyes were red and puffy. Her hair was pulled back in a natty ponytail. She held her phone in her palm, glancing down at it every few seconds. And she was driving that big ol’ gas hog of a Suburban, my own car of choice when I had three kids at home and a carpool.
Dear God. I was looking at myself ten years ago. Same car, same ponytail. Same frustration. We’ve all been there. Dog vomits on the sofa. Both kids have strep throat. The garbage disposal chooses today to break, when you are trying to disintegrate moldy fridge leftovers. Husband is mad because you forgot to pick up the dry cleaning and he’s going on a business trip. Sound familiar? …
She gunned forward, just to show me that she could.
I left her a wide berth, smiled at her splotchy face. She shot me a sideways scowl. …
Pulling up to the loudspeaker behind her, I said “I want to pay for whatever the woman in front of me has ordered. And please tell her I hope she has a better day.” I meant every word.
The woman idled in front of me for a good four minutes, talking to the barista who had leaned out the window. She shook her head and handed over a bill. She drove around the side of the building slowly, this time no gunning. Hmmm.
“No takers, huh?” I said to the barista as I pulled forward.
“Nope. She said she couldn’t believe you wanted to pay for her drink after all the names she called you. She said she couldn’t allow it, and said to tell you she was sorry. She felt really bad.”
“Did you tell her I hoped she had a better day?”
“Yep. She said thanks—that she already was.”
“Good to hear.” I smiled and handed her a dollar to put in the tip jar.
As I drove away, I began to cry. Not because I had been called so many terrible names, but because God had answered my very recent prayer—which was that He would allow me to see people as He sees them, not as I see them. That I might be able to see the hurting inside, instead of just the hurtful outside. And maybe a few tears were of gratitude and amazement that He always shows up with an answer when I sincerely ask.—Susan Basham2
*
The scripture makes it abundantly clear: “God saved you by his grace… [Why? Because] We are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago” (Ephesians 2:8–10). Paul makes it clear that it was a gift from God, not something you did for yourself. God did this because He still sees that work of art He created us to be.
So why do we struggle to treat people like the immensely valuable, one-of-a-kind masterpiece God created with His own hand? As I study the life and interactions of Jesus with very sin-stained, muddied people, it becomes evident that Jesus could see something worth dying for in all people He encountered. Jesus could see past the mud of sin to the masterpiece God wanted to restore.
What do you see most when you encounter sin-stained people? What do you see when you look in the mirror? Do you see the mud? Or do you see the masterpiece God wants to restore? What you focus on determines who you become and the impact you have on people around you! …
Jesus demonstrated a spiritual vision that He wants to impart to us—to see the masterpiece He sees in us, and to renovate us to become people whose hearts reflect what God sees, even in the muddiest, sin-stained life. Jesus saw God’s masterpiece, waiting to be revealed by His grace, and as a result, many people actually became what He envisioned. What do you envision, even for the muddiest human you encounter?—John Burke3
*
God asks that we value every individual, that we see humankind through His eyes of love, which means that we will look at others without bias, prejudice, or preconceived negative opinions. By embracing God’s perspective and seeing others as He does, we will avoid stereotyping people, or thinking of ourselves as better than others.
Understanding that God unconditionally loves all human beings and that His love knows no boundaries of race, creed, or status, guides our attitudes about others, especially those who are different from us in some ways.
Our commission as disciples, as those who walk in the Master’s footsteps, is to show the same love to others that Jesus showed.
We are meant to value and show respect to every person. Each person on earth is God’s creation just as we are, and God loves them just as He loves us. If we are following in Jesus’ footsteps, we won’t think other people are “below” us or inferior to us, no matter what their circumstances are. We are all equal in God’s eyes.—Peter Amsterdam
*
Reframing. I like that word. … It’s a terrific concept in the way it suggests that a situation, an event, a problem or a challenge can be viewed and understood in a variety of ways. When faced with a dilemma, we often see it in only one way, with only traditional options, none of which may be satisfactory.
Reframing is the creative and very helpful process of looking at something in a different light, from a very different perspective. And with that change in perspective come different solutions.
Reframing is a private, individual task: it is based on a creative alteration of one’s understanding of a situation, not modification of somebody else’s behavior or feelings. Reframing is something we do in the quiet holiness of our own hearts. It requires a thirst for insight. It insists on an openness to very new ideas. It mandates willingness to change.
And reframing often requires some real courage. It’s easy to try to change others. It’s much more difficult to try to change the way we perceive the world. But what a healthy, helpful exercise! One in which the world won’t change at all. But we will.—Robert A. Alper4
*
Jesus was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.
Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.”5
“Seeing the people…” This word “seeing” means to notice something with perception. He noticed the reality of what was happening around him. … It is very difficult for us to do that. We get so busy and caught up in what we’re doing that life happens around us and we don’t even notice. But Jesus paid attention to what was going on. And perceiving what was going on with the people, he was moved with compassion. Compassion is a great word that comes from the same root as our word intestines.6 Down in his gut he had this incredible compassionate feeling about what he saw.
What was it that Jesus saw? First of all, he saw hurting people. His compassion was poured out to them “because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.”7 … [W]hen Jesus looked around, he saw past the surface issues of life, even beyond the physical needs, deep into the hearts of people. He saw people who were broken down and hurting, not able to answer questions about what life was all about, and feeling like they were in it all alone. That sounds like a picture of our world, doesn’t it?
But that’s not all Jesus saw. He also saw a plentiful harvest. … [H]e understood that what these people needed was hope, a sense that there was something they could have faith in, something that could meet the deepest needs of their heart. That was the gospel of the kingdom. So there was hope to be given to hurting, downcast, distressed people, and the hope was in who he was—the Messiah, who had come to set people free from the bondage of sin.
Jesus saw people. He noticed. He paid attention. And out of that a heart of compassion sprang into action to minister. He called his disciples to pray and be involved that way, and that’s what he is calling us to do. He is calling us to be men and women who can see the world we live in, perceive the needs, pray for God to raise up people to meet the needs, and then ourselves become part of the answer by being engaged in the wonderful harvest that’s out there.—Danny Hall8
Published on Anchor October 2014. Read by Debra Lee.
Footnotes:
1 NASB.
2 http://stdominicgrace.wordpress.com/2013/09/23/she-yelled-and-called-me-names.
3 http://www.johnburkeonline.com/seeing-through-the-eyes-of-jesus.
4 Life Doesn’t Get Any Better Than This: The Holiness of Little Daily Dramas (Liguori Publications, 1996).
5 Matthew 9:35–38 NASB.
6 See https://bible.org/illustration/god%E2%80%99s-compassion.
7 Matthew 9:36 NASB.
8 http://www.pbc.org/system/message_files/14668/14667_4853.html.
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