Jun
26
2017

A Fresh Eye

Posted in Christian Worldview | 2 Comments

My youngest daughter is interning all summer in the city.
She will be serving for twelve weeks.
Four of those weeks have already been completed.
After three weeks of preparation, the students arrived for their week of service.

All throughout the summer, youth groups will come to serve in various aspects of this ministry.
There is Kids Camp, which runs all day long throughout the summer.
There is Home Repair, which sends teams out to work on homes in the area.
There is Mercy Ministry, which meets practical needs in the community.

My daughter is part of the Mercy Ministry.
They take a bus into the city and feed the homeless.
They are working at a Christian school in the area to get it ready for September.
They are helping at a local church as well as going to a women and children’s shelter.

My youngest daughter told all of us that she would be leading worship.
The last night of the first service week was the night she would be singing.
My oldest daughter and I wanted to go.
We had dinner first and then drove into the city.

The place where the interns and all the students are staying was formerly an old seminary.
The interns have been working on the building, getting it ready for the students.
They have done a good job; however, there is only so much you can do with an old building.
The campus itself is beautiful; but the building has seen better days.

My daughter and I pulled into the parking lot.
We were at a loss as to which building we needed to enter.
As we got out of the car, we heard music.
We saw a young man sitting on a large window sill, three floors above us.

We were in a courtyard with buildings all around.
The sound was playing tricks on us.
Every time we thought we knew where the singing was coming from, we were wrong.
The sound was bouncing off the buildings and making it difficult to discern its direction.

We entered the building where we saw the young man sitting minutes before.
He was no longer in the window.
When we opened the door, we could not hear a thing.
As soon as we stepped back outside, we could hear the music again.

This has to be the building, I said.
We couldn’t understand why a worship service would be happening three floors up.
As we walked up three flights of stairs, we heard muffled sound but nothing distinctive.
Finally after walking in what seemed to be a labyrinth, we saw the room.

We walked through the doors.
My youngest daughter was playing the keyboard and singing.
Other interns were up in front as well.
The words of the songs were projected on a screen on each side of the room.

I saw the young man sitting on the windowsill.
Now I knew why he was sitting there.
The room had to be about 95 degrees.
The lights were dimmed and box fans were running around the perimeter of the room.

The old seminary building did not have air conditioning.
The heat did not seem to diminish the fellowship in that room.
The students and the yellow-shirted interns did not let the heat interfere with worship.
The head of the Project got up to speak, as he recapped the week they all experienced.

He encouraged the students to tell what God had taught them this week.
He encouraged them to stand up, come forward, take the microphone, and share.
A long awkward pause followed.
No one said a word, no one stood up to come forward; there was total silence.

It is difficult for high school students to get up in front of others.
It is difficult to put their experience into words.
Finally, after an interminably long wait, a girl came forward.
All it takes is one person; soon others followed.

I heard many things that the students learned about themselves and God.
One story stood out from the rest.
It was a young man who was a youth leader from one of the churches.
He began to tell his story.

He was on the home repair team.
It was his third summer with the Project, serving others.
He had been blessed to go to the same house, doing ongoing work and repairs.
The homeowner, an older woman, always sat in the kitchen while they worked.

He admitted that it always bothered him that this woman sat while others worked around her.
He admitted that he never stopped to talk to her.
I was kind, I said hello, I smiled, but at the end of the day, I was there to do work, he admitted.
All that changed this year.

Every time I saw her, he said, she was sitting at the table doing a puzzle.
I worked around her but after a while, it was like I didn’t see her.
One day, I looked at her and really saw her.
She was doing her puzzle and I sat down and did the puzzle with her,
he said sweetly.

I listened to him tell about the things they talked about.
I listened as he talked about trying to do the puzzle, which was more difficult than he thought.
Three years I went to the same house and never talked to Mrs. S, he said with a bit of regret.
This year something was different, he said.

How do you do this? he asked Mrs. S, who was very good at finishing puzzles.
Mrs. S could see that he was struggling to find the right pieces.
Mrs. S looked at him and paused before speaking.
Walk away and come back with a fresh eye, she wisely said.

For three years, I never talked to Mrs. S.
Finally, I did and she helped me far more than I ever helped her.
She taught me to get a new perspective,
he explained.
She taught me to come back with a fresh eye.

Everyone in the room was impacted by what he said.
Mrs. S not only helped this youth leader, she helped all of us of heard the story.
I wrote down snippets of what the young man said so I would remember.
I pondered the words of Mrs. S as I drove home; I pondered them the next morning.

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:18)

How desperately we need a fresh eye.
We must intentionally walk away from something when we are unable to see it clearly.
If we seek God’s face on the matter in prayer and through His Word, we can come back to it.
When we come back to it, after being with Him, we have a fresh eye.

God’s eye.

Temporary things often seem futile and downright impossible.
Walking away to get an eternal perspective helps us refocus.
When we come back, we are able to see things much clearer.
We come back with a fresh eye and that makes all the difference.

Thank you Mrs. S.
For many of us in that room, you helped provide the missing piece of the puzzle.
Walk away.
Come back with a fresh eye.

Whispers of His Movement and Whispers in Verse books are now available in paperback and e-book!

http://www.whispersofhismovement.com/book/

2 responses to “A Fresh Eye”

  1. Amen! A good word concerning our conversation this morning…praying my friend – love you, and thanks for your encouragement and always point all of us to Jesus! Your words are always seasoned with grace and love.

    • Diane,
      Thank you for your sweet words. I am so glad that are able to share hearts and pray for each other. I still use the mini concordance you gave me all those years ago. It is a blessing and always brings you to mind. Blessings.
      Gina

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