I see you. Not that I’m in your presence, not meaning
that I am looking at you, but I see you. I notice. I consider myself observant.
Unless I’m looking for my keys and that’s a whole other issue. I find that
people just don’t see anymore. I guess you could say we are window shopping in
life. We avert our eyes, lost in a superficial need to check the time, the
phone, the lint on our shirt. It’s as if we all have herd immunity from
relationships. That’s what it boils down to. Fear that making eye contact will
result in a spark of humanity that would send our world into chaos.
Relationship, as defined by the Brooke-Albertson-Dictionary for extraordinary
adults, is a mutual realization of a connected existence. Shocking that it isn’t
a four-letter word because that might be more fitting.
I’m actually not desiring to talk about relationships,
but unity. Unity, as defined by the B-A-Dictionary for extraordinary adults, is
a mutual realization of a connected existence, but different. In my most recent
foray into changing the world by being changed, I came face to face with a
stupidly ridiculous concept… Picture the hearts of the millions of Christians in
the United States without the labeled wall of their house of worship, wrapped
around them. Imagine every sweet soul who sponsors a child in a foreign nation
or donates to the homeless shelter down the street. Or better yet, imagine the
eyes of a child looking on to see the sadness of a broken world. How
unstoppable could we be, if for just one day we worked in unison for the
betterment of our connected existence? 24 hours of united lives reaching toward
others to provide eyes that really see them. Not looking away. Not rolling our
eyes up as if doing some elaborate math problem. Or the stretched-out neck
apparently searching for something in the distance. Imagine if we stopped and
saw the millions of children that go to bed hungry every night or met the
lonely eyes of an abused immigrant. What might possibly happen if every church
in your city, or my city, or my state decided that in the next 24 hours we were
going to find a solution for those who are hungry today. What might be the
outcome if every congregation, living the commandment of Jesus Christ- to love
God, and to love each other as ourselves, ACTUALLY DID IT! Every collection
plate, donated dollar, and volunteered minute united for a span of 24 hours, to
do uncommon things for uncommon circumstances. We could raise up the chins of
the down trodden, look them in the eye, and say “I see you. I’m here to help.”
We could.
I could.
I will.
Will you?
