Our last blog post talked about truly seeing the people around us. Too often we interact with individuals as co-workers, opposing counsel, waiters, classmates, clients, or even friends and family members. But we fail to see them as real, vulnerable, strong, infinitely valuable, incredibly complex people. 

I know that I often fail to treat the people I meet with the love and respect they are due. I see the exterior, and not the image of God inside of them. Still, since I know that I am commanded to love, I try to love more. I try to push through interpersonal differences. I put the emphasis on my actions. But what if we need the Lord to change more than our doing — what if we need Him to first heal our seeing? What if the experience of loving our neighbor starts, not with the action of service, but with taking time to see them for who they are and who they were created to be? 

Last Tuesday we held client appointments at Homeboy Industries.  Before the day began, I stood beside the homeboys and staff as they gathered for daily announcements and the morning reflection.

One of the homeboys shared that morning, and what he said resonated with me. He encouraged us to take time to see one another, explaining that what caused him to truly change his ways was the discovery that when he came to Homeboy Industries, someone saw him.  

It made me ask, “Am I taking the time to see who is right next to me?”  

His reflection also reminded me of the story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37), who saw the wounded man along the side of the road and took care of his wounds as opposed to those who passed by earlier, who chose to ignore that they saw the man suffering and continued on their way.

This made me ask a second question, “How am I responding to what I see?”