Mark 10:46 Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (which means “son of Timaeus”), was sitting by the roadside begging. 47 When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”
48 Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”
49 Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.”
So they called to the blind man, “Cheer up! On your feet! He’s calling you.” 50 Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus.
51 “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked him.
The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see.”
52 “Go,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.
There is something subtle but so important in this story. It seems small, but it is tremendously important. People need to be seen. What do I mean? Each of us has the core need to be seen, acknowledged, cared about and valued by others. It's built into us. We need to know others see us, engage us, touch us, care about us.
That's what all the Internet activity is about- people saying to one another, 'look at me!' We need to be seen, cared for and valued.
People want you to really see them, care about them, look in their eyes and ask who they are.
That's why I love this story of Bartimaeus. The crowd is passing by, telling him to shut up, don't bother us, don't bother Jesus, but Jesus stops. That's a profound picture. He stops this huge procession of people to acknowledge just one person. And when he feels truly seen he himself sees as well. I know, it's a word play on the picture, but it's a beautiful picture of a man changed by the simple moment in time when the most important person who ever lived stopped to engage a blind man, to say simply, 'I see you.'
In our work the most important thing we do is a sublte, simple and relatively easy thing- the most important thing we do is to see a man or woman, to stop and spend time with them, to hear them, cry with them, touch them, to say, 'I see you and I care.'
There is only one eternal thing you will ever encounter in your life. It's other people. Cars, houses, money and jewels will all rot, rust or be thrown away, but people will last forever. Take time and see them. Your life will be richer than any wealth you could ever acquire!
