Today I walked among the unseen. As part of this season in my life, I have to go to University Medical Center (UMC) at least once a month. I have joined the ranks of the medically indigent of Fresno county. The blessing is that I receive "free" medical care. The but the price I pay along with the rest of the multitude is hours of standing inline, monthly paper work and over crowded waiting rooms to see overworked, and over whelmed doctors and nurses. Today I needed to renew my MISP (Medically Indigent Services Program), get some blood drawn and pick up my meds. But all that is for a different blog. The adventure I wish to relate today was the journey to UMC and back.
As I walked to the bus stop, a good friend drove by. My first reaction was to hide. I wanted to avoid the discussion about why I choose to walk to the buss stop rather that try to beg a ride from someone. But as this person passed slowly (they were turning) not even two feet from me without noticing me, the self-centered part of me quickly became hurt almost offended that I had remained unseen.
Everyone wants to be seen, even when they pretend they don't. Every person has a desire to fill a space in the fabric of time. We want to make difference or leave a mark or just know that someone sees us and cares.
This made me wonder. How may times do we pass people without seeing them. Sitting on a bench, passing us in the hall or sitting at a desk in the same room. Maybe we even talk to them, but we don't really see them. We are so consumed with what has happened, what is happening, what will be happening, or what we need to do that we miss the unseen. During the course o
f my day, walking from one bus stop to another I was almost run over by a preoccupied driver. I was walking accros a parking lot entrance when a lady drove around the corner and turned into the parking lot. I had to stop and move out of the way as to not get run over. Even as she passed me she did not see me. She was so hyper focused on where she was going that I almost became another statistic. (There has been a rash of pedestrians getting run over in Fresno lately) How may times have we run over the "unseen" with our anger, greed, or indifference?I chose the term unseen because people aren't invisible. They are there and God sees them. Oh that I could see with God's eyes! Oh that I would put aside the things that consume my time and my needs to be right, or heard, or to be vindicated, because these all come at a steep price to the unseen.
2 comments:
It is amazing how a bus ride or walk to "the other side of the tracks" reveals a world that is unseen by another. I have many a moments like the one that you describe, and there is something refreshing about journeying to "the other side." Maybe it is simply because it is nice to have things slow down a bit. Maybe it is because we pay more attention when we are in a different element. Whatever the case maybe it is a growing experience, a chance to move beyond where we have been for a period of time.
On the other side (pun intended) i have noticed the "unseen" react much like all of the drivers. They don't seem to notice or care as much about the people in the machines as they do about their walk or getting where they are going. We are all selfish, and need more perspective. However, i have noticed a big difference between the walkers and the drivers. When the walkers pause in their journey or walk by someone else, they acknowledge them, but the drivers never acknowledge one another unless they cut off or feel "unseen" in traffic. It's probably beuause of how isolated the car makes us. The car is intended to keep everything that happens in the car, well, in the car unless we choose to experience a little more of the world around us like letting the top down or rolling down the window. But even then we usually have "our" music playing. Whatever we experience in a car is intended for the riders only. All of this just fuels an already individualistic mindset. However, the side walk doesn't escape this mindset either now days. The walkers are equipped with ipods.
So, i suppose the point of all of my ramblings is this, like Kelli (oops i mean "The preacher") if we are ever going to find belonging in the world around us, or allow others to belong to us we must be intentional. We must see beyond ourselves.
On the other side (pun intended) i have noticed the "unseen" react much like all of the drivers. They don't seem to notice or care as much about the people in the machines as they do about their walk or getting where they are going. We are all selfish, and need more perspective. However, i have noticed a big difference between the walkers and the drivers. When the walkers pause in their journey or walk by someone else they acknowledge them, but the drivers never acknowledge one another unless they cut off or feel "unseen" in traffic. It's probably beuause of how isolated the car makes us. It is intended to keep everything that happens in the car in the car unless we choose to experience a little more of the world around us like letting the top down or rolling down the window. But even then we usually have "our" music playing. Whatever we experience in a car is intended for the riders only. All of this just fuels an already individualistic mindset. However, the side walk doesn't escape this mindset either now days. The walkers are equipped with ipods.
So, i suppose the point of all of my ramblings is this, like Kelli (oops i mean "The preacher") if we are ever going to find belonging in the world around us, or allow others to belong to us we must be intentional. We must see beyond ourselves.
Kelli, this is more challenging than I think we are willing to consider. We are, unfortunately, not willing to look beyond ourselves (as Hunter stated). But with the grace of God, perhaps this too can change!
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