Several years ago there was a movie called Avatar that was very popular. It was a scifi genre but also had a social message stuck in the middle too.
About that time, I remember a management training exercise a performance improvement consultant once put us through when I worked at a major retailer. The training was a mandate from the department head so we knew we had to participate in. So we all showed up for the training session.
The movie Avatar was just out and apparently there is a scene where one character says to the other …I see you… Well the consultant got the idea that we needed to do this too. She incorporated this I see you experience into the training program and at one point had us lined up, all senior executives facing each other. Men and women, older and quieter, younger and a bit nervous all lined up and were asked to stare in each other’s eyes and say…I see you…and hold that stare for 60 seconds. 60 seconds can be a long time.
Needless to say we were all uncomfortable and were challenged to not laugh out loud or make jokes. Most of us had red faces and hands we had no idea what to do with.
It was uncomfortable and made you feel like you were being asked to do something more to do with intimacy than work place. We then shifted and had to do it with 2 or 3 others. We were all glad when it was over and I don’t think a single one of us thought this was a good idea and we all felt a bit silly over it.
I don’t think the exercise had the intended result….I am not sure what that was anymore but I do know that for those I stared at and repeated the mantra … I see you… to …well our relationship changed. One person, Megan who I had worked closely with but always had to struggle to keep her trust…well it seemed that she was now less distrustful and we today are friends. Another person Mark, we no longer just passed each other in the hallway acquaintances but consulted with each other on things, knowing intuitively we could trust and depend on each other. Another, Steven now shared with me more about his department’s area and collaborated more.
I am not advocating going through that exercise again. But it showed me the importance of eye to eye contact. Looking into a person’s eye so that they saw you and you saw them. We no longer were just another face or that guy we have to work with. Each person became real. Each face more familiar. You could no longer ignore the other as you passed in the halls. You had to say hello, smile a genuine smile of recognition. Trust, empathy and goodwill were now part of that relationship…the other person was no longer a stranger no longer irrelevant, no longer faceless.
I hated that exercise. But how I wish we could line everyone up in our church and our town and our country and world and be forced to stare in each others eyes and say, I see you. For after awhile you are actually sincere….I see you…and I know you now see me.
Eye ball to eye ball matters, face to face matters.
This is what Jesus told John.
These outcast matter. The deaf, the sick, the lost, the blind…..matter….Jesus saw them and us and he asks us to see him too.
Jesus is the one. He is the one who came for us. He came not to establish an earthly kingdom…but to tell all of us that we are children of the kingdom of God and we are important.
We need not look for another. We only have to accept his offer of hope, love, peace, and joy. And see ……
Happy Rejoice Sunday!
The Kingdom of God is at hand.
Deacon Tony Pynes 