This week as I listened to the radio on my drive to work, a desperate lady called in to the show hosts. She tearfully confessed that she felt unloved and disconnected to the point that she struggles even to love others. It broke my heart. She is disabled and she said, no one sees her; people just pass her by. She feels unworthy and lonely. Do you know anyone like that? Furthermore, is there any person or groups of people that you tend to overlook, exclude, or take for granted? You might not feel cast away and ignored like this dear woman, but you can probably identify with her. To some degree, everyone has experienced isolation, rejection, and a desire to belong.
We all need to be loved and then share that love with others. At the high school where I teach we honor students who contribute to building community. Like social firebrands these students light faces with smiles and spark happiness in hearts. They stoke positivity and encouragement. They seek those on the fringe and invite them to the campfire of conversations and activities. I’m inspired to do the same as a teacher. Would you like to do a better job of acknowledging and including people? You can learn key lessons from Jesus, our perfect example for how to see and engage others.
Jesus is God the Son who became a man to seek and save the lost. He graciously gave his innocent life so your wrongdoing can be forgiven and therefore you don’t have to die as a result of your sin. In addition, he rose from the dead and lives so that anyone who trusts and obeys him can have new, abundant, everlasting life in fellowship with God and victory over sin. From his unsurpassed wisdom, almighty power, and unconditional love Jesus leads those who will follow him. He also enables them to joyfully live for God and others instead of themselves. He is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6). Here are some things you can glean from his selfless modelling.
Look Beyond Yourself
Many times we fail to see people because we spend too much time gazing into a mirror instead of looking out a window. A key way to start seeing others is to stop trying to meet your own needs apart from God. Instead allow God to fulfill your needs. Only he truly can. As you do it frees you to recognize others, walk in their shoes, and share God’s love and truth, so they can be saved.
One of God’s names is El Roi, which means God sees me (Genesis 16). This characteristic name for God includes the truth that God cares and provides for you as a good shepherd would. The Bible says we are like sheep who have gone astray (Isaiah 53:6). Jesus came as the good shepherd to find you, heal your brokenness, and lead you in the way everlasting (John 10:1-18; Luke 15:1-7). David, who was a shepherd before becoming king of Israel, understood this well. He wrote in Psalm 23, “The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake” (Psalm 23:1-3). God created you. He loves you and he sees you. “For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him” (2 Chronicles 16:9). Find your identity and completeness in God. Let him supply whatever you lack. Then see with his eyes, love with his heart, and act as his hands and feet.
Recognize People’s Worth
You are special and priceless. So is every other person, because God created each of us in his image. Therefore you should honor and love others because of their divine worth. This isn’t easy, because our default approach is to assign importance to people based on how they make us feel or what we can get from them. We tend to value people based on their appearance, abilities, achievements, affluence, and authority. However, God ascribes worth much differently (1 Samuel 16:7). He values you not for what you can do for him, but for who you are as his creation. Although he hates any wrong you might do because he knows it will destroy you, he continues to love you, just like a devoted parent does. When he looks at you, he focuses on your potential rather than your faults and brokenness. He is always gently yet firmly working to bring you around to who he gloriously designed to be in Jesus. When you fall short, he doesn’t cast you out. Rather he calls you in to his embrace. As your heavenly Father he desires for you to be with him, to be like him, and to do what he does because that is what’s best for you. Jesus makes such a life with God possible for all who trust and obey him.
So given the incredible worth God ascribes to you, recognize that same worth in others. Jesus is calling you to treat them the way you would want to be treated, to love them even when they harm you, and to forgive them as he has forgiven you (Matthew 5:38-48, 6:14-15, 7:7-12). He understands this is difficult, for he sought, as well as, succeeded in relating with others this way. He will enable you to do the same if you rely on him.
Engage and Serve
Jesus not only saw people, he also served them. In response to his disciples desire for greatness, Jesus instructed them that glory is found in giving out not in lording over. He said, “the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28). The Bible, God’s word to us, records numerous examples of Jesus’ sacrificial love, wise understanding, and tender empathy. Here are just a few that highlight his transforming impact on people. Jesus crossed social boundaries and rose above common stereotypes to save a Samaritan woman living in shame and her town (John 4:4-32). When a man with leprosy came to Jesus begging to be free from this chronic, infectious disease and its social stigma, Jesus touched the “untouchable” man and healed him (Luke 5:12-15). When Jesus saw a paralyzed man struggling to get to the “healing” waters of Bethesda but had no one to help him, Jesus cured him on the spot. At the calling of Jesus, the man stood and walked after being an invalid for 38 years (John 5:1-15). After calming a life-threatening storm that he and his disciples were caught in, Jesus went to Gentile territory despite his primary ministry being to Jews. When Jesus got out of the boat a wild, demon-possessed man, who lived in the tombs crying out and cutting himself day and night, fell at his feet wondering what would happen to him now that he was in the presence of “Jesus, Son of the Most HIgh God.” Jesus commanded the demons to leave the man and restored him to a sound mind and body (Mark 5:1-20). Jesus ate with and associated with sinners, prostitutes, and tax collectors. When self-righteous religious leaders complained about this, Jesus replied, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:27-31). Hopefully these few examples give you a glimpse of the incredible compassion, kindness, and goodness Jesus showed while intentionally seeking, engaging, and meeting people’s deepest needs. There are so many further examples that the apostle John who walked with Jesus wrote, “Jesus did many others things as well. If everyone of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written” (John 21:25). I have never met anyone who loves me and others like Jesus does. Each day I want to follow him, learn from him, and become more like him.
As with Jesus’ ministry on earth sometimes people will come to you, other times you have to go to them. Either way, look for any opportunity God opens to encourage and equip them. Ask inviting questions. Actively listen. Engage people wherever they might be spiritually and help them move forward—closer to God. Follow Jesus and he will work through you to seek and to save the lost. That is why he came to earth and he has passed that preeminent ministry of reconciliation on through his Spirit to all who follow him (Luke 19:10; John 20:19-23, Matthew 28:18-20).
I’ll conclude with a challenging quote from Mother Teresa. Out of her devotion to God she loved and served the unwanted, the unloved and the uncared for among the poor, blind, aged, disabled, and leprous in the slums of Calcutta, India. “Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God’s kindness: kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile, kindness in your warm greeting.” Each day prayerfully and humbly see people around you. Let no one go unnoticed. Separate their actions from their being and recognize their worth as created by God. Engage them with the hope you have in Jesus. Meet their needs as God enables you. Share his love and truth so they might find new life in God as you have.