Seen

By: Unknown on 8:01 PM

Share it Please

Tweet

Last night, I had the incredible honor of sharing a little bit about how running has changed my life at the Team World Vision banquet.  We were preparing a team of runners to run the Minnesota Half Marathon this morning.  I didn't realize just how sad I would be that I wasn't able to be there at the race to cheer on these people I had spent the evening with.  My thoughts on God's Kingdom being present among the community of runners was once again validated by the amazing group of people that were there last night.  There is just something about being united with people who share the same vision as you do that makes me instantly love and care about them.  

If I'm honest, I feel like a bit of a creeper sometimes due to the level of emotion I feel towards people I hardly even know.  This has been a characteristic that I know is God given, but I don't always know what to do with it.  I am that person that can watch a person's body language or observe a conversation that people I don't know are having and end up in tears because of the pain or joy that is being experienced.

I have always been acutely aware of people that are overlooked or lonely.   For example, there is a man in his late 50's, early 60's that I see frequently in the cafe at our local Target store.  We've ended up chatting with him a few times, and he's always really great with the kids.  He is there almost every single time I go to Target after work, and every time he is either alone or making conversation with another family.  I think he goes there to not be so alone, to be seen, to feel a little less insignificant.  I've been so tempted to invite him over to dinner, or just sit down and chat with him for a while, but I'm always in a hurry or a little scared of what actually might happen; vulnerability scares me.  So instead, if I happen to see him, I just shed a few tears and imagine what his story might be, what brought a man to Target to find human interaction?

A while back, I was doing an online Bible study on the book of John.  The moderators would post the verses we were studying for the day along with some thoughts and then everyone else would leave their comments.  The day we dove into John 5, I realized that I see the world a bit differently than most, at least I did that day.

After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.    Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades.  In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed.  One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.  When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him,  “Do you want to be healed?”    The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.”  Jesus said to him,  “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.”    And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.  Now that day was the Sabbath. (John 5:1-9, ESV)

I read through comment after comment about this verse and no one had seen what I saw.  Everyone focused on what they believed to be an excuse - I have no one to put me in the pool.  Comment after comment was about how we need to be owners of our faith and take action, we can't wait around for someone else to do it for us.  But what I saw was completely opposite.  What I saw was a man who had been there for 38 years, who had tried to get to the pool, but every time he got close, someone else stepped down before him.  When I read it I just cried, I still have a hard time reading it without playing this out in my head.  He is essentially invisible as everyone else goes about their business and seeks what it is that they need, completely ignoring the fact that this guy just needed a little bit of help.  But the most beautiful thing is that Jesus saw him.  The single most important man in all of history was the one who finally took the time to help this man, and on the Sabbath no less.  Our God is a God who sees everyone.

This morning as I was on my way to the Dirty Girl Mud Run, I was reflecting on the banquet last night and the new things I learned about the realities of the lack of clean water in other countries.  I then realized just how stark of contrast life in America is compared to life in places like Africa and Haiti.

I was on my way to an event where we take the abundance of water we have and purposely make mud with it so that grown women can pay to play in it.  Yes, I had a great time, it was a lot of fun and I very much enjoyed having some time to chat with other women and have a rare kid free Saturday, but every time the conversation stopped and I had time alone with my thoughts, I kept going back to the injustice of it all.

I learned about a woman in Zambia who starts her day at 6 am by walking to retrieve water.  She returns home at 2pm.  That is an 8 hour day, just to get water that probably isn't all that safe to drink.  This same woman rarely has enough water left over to bathe her son, just enough to smooth over his skin.  This is all I could think about as I stood in a line of women, water flowing everywhere as we washed the mud that we purposely covered ourselves in, off of our bodies.

It isn't right.

I often wonder if these people sometimes feel like they aren't seen.  Do they feel like the man waiting by the pool being constantly overlooked as other people go about their business getting what they need?  What would they think if they knew that people in America make mud with their water because they have so much of it?

Bono said something once that has stuck with me for quite some time.

We can be the generation that no longer accepts that an accident of latitude determines whether a child lives or dies.  But will we be that generation? - Bono

Will we?

I believe with all of my heart that God is doing something amazing in this generation.  I feel like there is a huge movement going on in the church right now where He is tugging at people's hearts left and right and saying to them, "Hey, you know my son, Jesus?  That guy that died on the cross for you?  He did a lot of REALLY amazing things while he was alive, and I think it is time you start doing some of those things too."

I believe that God wants us to start seeing these people.  We can't use the excuse that we live here and they live there to not see them.  He wants us to see them and to help them.  

This is a woman in Kpalang village, Ghana.  This was the only water source for 600 people. (The Hole in Our Gospel, Richard Stearns.  Photo by Jon Warren/World Vision)   

Every time I look at this photo, I cry.  I don't know that it will ever stop impacting me.  I need the reminder to keep seeing.  I often get happy here in my own little world and forget.  But when you know, you know, and you can't shake that image.   

But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? (1 John 3:17, ESV)

The best news is that with Team World Vision, you can help make a difference.  Over the past 27 years, World Vision has provided 12 million people with clean water, but there are still many more who need it.  You can see them.  You can help them.  

Just $50 provides clean water for 1 person for an entire lifetime.  Will you help me reach my goal of providing clean water for 52 people?  I'm running 26.2 miles on October 5th (you can read more about that here) with the sole purpose of helping bring water to people who need it.  

Yes, I want to help!

Even if you can't donate right now, you can still make a difference by seeing.  You can always be mindful of people who need to be seen, who need a little bit of help.  Jesus took the time to do it, I think that we can take the time to do it too. (This reminder is just as much for me.)  I pray that I would never stop seeing and that God would continue to break my heart until there is no reason for it to be broken.