Life as I know it encompasses a small space. My own little world in rural America remains insulated from many of the issues I see in the media. If I choose, I can quite easily ignore the bigger problems that don’t directly involve me. This kind of tunnel vision focuses on what’s right before my eyes, blocking out everything in the periphery. My attention centers on the struggles and successes in my own personal inner circle. Whereas, human nature urges me to run and hide from all the evil and pain that presses in from outside, God calls me to have a wider viewpoint.
Every workday, I drive into the city. Many of the homes in the clinic’s neighborhood are renovated. However, I still pass boarded up buildings defaced with spray painted graffiti. Not far from our doors, drug deals are going down and shootings are a common occurrence. This world is reality for many of my patients. I can drive away. They can’t.
Even the small town that I call home, has experienced its share of tragedy. Not long ago, a couple in our community both overdosed within a month of each other. Their children are now orphans being raised by their grandparents. The number of fatalities from heroin overdoses has skyrocketed. Evil knocks on our door in the rural areas, just as it does in the intercity.
You see, we are not just grappling with a drug problem or a gun problem, but a heart problem. “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”1 There exists a “dark web” in which children are bought and sold in the sex trade and the number of slaves worldwide exceeds any time in known history. Do we continue to ignore these facts by looking at society with tunnel vision or do we yank off our blinders to see the reality around us?
Whether it be human trafficking, gang violence or the drug trade, God calls us to see with different eyes and to realize that we fight forces bigger than ourselves. Jesus looked with compassion at all the hurting people around him. He saw their suffering and reached out to touch their wounds. Therefore, only through seeing people as Jesus sees, do we stand up to the evil and pain in our world. We must overcome our fear and reach out to touch those rejected by society. Then we will recognize the presence of Jesus within them.
Mother Teresa once said, “I see Jesus in every human being. I say to myself, this is hungry Jesus, I must feed him. This is sick Jesus. This one has leprosy or gangrene; I must wash him and tend to him. I serve because I love Jesus.” It’s never easy to reach out and serve those we perceive as different than ourselves. Somedays the things I see, break my heart. Yet I keep going back. God calls me…he calls you…to open our eyes to take it all in, even when it’s painful. His Spirit gives us the courage to look beyond our tunnel vision to experience His glory. Whenever we serve “the least of these,” we are truly serving Jesus.
1Ephesians 6:12
