Seeing Jesus in Others
2 He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. 3 And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children,s you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.t 4 Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.u 5 And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me. Matthew 18:2-5 NIV
I have been challenged recently by two related ideas. They are not exactly new to me however, I have received them in a new context with a renewed emphasis. The first is the idea that when we come to faith in Jesus Christ, we become a new creation, and he is in us. The second is that this is true for others. It is especially true for other Christians, but we can assume it’s probably true others as well.
Moreover, these two are related to a third idea. As Bishop Charles Jones of Selma, Alabama often says the person in front of you right now is the most important person Jesus in you wants to meet.
I have been in the last month, doing my best to consciously act these ideas out in my professional life. It is always been my practice to preach, conversely, with relatively few notes of any. In that way I am able to establish iContact with members of the congregation. My new practice is to emphasize this gazing into peoples eyes so that I do it more intently and for a slightly longer duration.
Well, I haven’t had any direct feedback; no one has come up to me and said anything about it. It seems to me that the audience in general is paying attention. This is evidence for example that they lean forward a little bit more than they might’ve in the past. Although I only have two recent examples to draw from, I would say that I have had many more enthusiastic remarks about the sermon as people shake my hand on the way out of church.
In one on one encounters, when doing the same thing for an extended period of time, in a conversation I have experienced related phenomenon. The conversations seem to get more personal and in-depth, and last longer than other more casual conversations in the past. This seemed especially true during a recent visit to a local state prison where I visit monthly.
Of course the best place to practice this method of conversation is with one’s own family. It’s a little harder to detect a difference so far for me. I’d like to think perhaps it’s because I have better communication with my wife and grandson who lives with us. I will be watching to see if there are significant improvements as I go forward.
Likewise, I might say, without bragging, that I’m a fairly personable extroverted guy. That’s my every day contacts with waiters, check out people, etc. I’ve always been pleasant. However, I will be paying attention to see if this process indeed fares good fruit.
So, this is not rocket science. It’s not difficult. Give it a try. You’ll be meeting Jesus wherever you go and paradoxically taking him with you too.
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