It’s not easy being the medical person in the family. When my mother introduces me as her ‘doctor daughter,’ I cringe. Even though I want to help her navigate a confusing health care system, I’d rather do it incognito. Sometimes I want to cry out, just let me be me without the diploma and the stethoscope. But unfortunately, that’s not how our world operates.
In one way or another, labels define each of us. Whether we like it or not, our job, our family, and even the place we live influence people’s opinion. They form preconceived ideas or expectations based on their perception of our background. Many times a negative assumption becomes impossible to overcome. It holds a person down from meeting their full potential.
Long ago, my future husband relayed that a co-worker advised him not to date me because I was smart and interested only in studying. This sounds petty now, but at the time it hurt. Even good labels are twisted sometimes in the hands of cruel people. It’s difficult to shake negative comments especially as a teenager. Experience and age have taught me how to ignore such comments most of the time. However, a well placed arrow can still hit its mark and injure my heart.
Even so, I have no doubt that growing up in America in a white middle class family offered me undeniable privilege that helped me move beyond labels. Both of my parents are college graduates and remain married after almost 65 years. All these factors, contributed to my success in school and my medical career. Opportunities opened up for me and my background gave me the confidence to pursue them.
The world is full of individuals more intelligent and talented than me. Oftentimes, they never have any opportunity to prove themselves. When I worked in an intercity health center, I saw young people every day who lacked the confidence to pursue further education. When asked what they planned to do after graduation, they looked at me like I was crazy. Perhaps I’m the only one who saw their potential.
Oh, what I would give to live in a world where everyone could say, ‘just let me be me’ and their wish was honored. No labels. No preconceived ideas. Only transparency. Each one of us seen as our true selves on a level playing field. But that’s not the world we know. At least not in our present reality. Only God sees us as our true selves: magnificent created beings full of talent and potential. Children of the Most High.
Change isn’t easy. It must first start with an open heart and a willingness to see as God sees. It’s a step into vulnerability, out of our comfort zone, and sometimes messy. To see people…really see people, takes time. Most of us move ahead in our busy schedules so fast we overlook everyone but ourselves. I’m as guilty as the next person of this type of blindness.
So, slow down and pray to have the scales removed from your eyes. When I allow the Great Physician to correct my vision, I’m always surprised by what I see. He reveals beautiful people weighed down by the difficulties of life in this fallen world who simply need someone to encourage them and give them a hand up. Maybe you’re that person in need of encouragement or you’re in a position to be the encourager. Together, with God’s help, we can change the way we see and treat each other… one person at a time.
God does not see the same way people see. People look at the outside of a person, but the Lord looks at the heart
1 Samuel 16:7 NCV
