I still remember the fist time I realized that businesses see employees as expendable. I was 19 and had worked for the same grocery store since the day I turned 16.
It was a family owned small chain in Oklahoma City. Starting pay was $3.25 an hour and that was it. I had worked my way through bagger, cashier, stock crew, and was at this time working in the produce department. I was up to $4.50 or so after three years. That was a time when minimum wage had just gone up and my 3 years equated to barely over the bottom level. That was not gonna work for me. So I decided to ask the store manager for a raise.
I had worked every shift ever asked, I never called in, I could do almost every job in that store and I worked my tail off for the hiring manager. Monte was a great guy and a great manager. Unfortunately he had passed away and the family who owned the chain brought in their uncle to run it. Willie had already closed down two stores and this one had taken a nosedive since he had been there. No one liked him, myself included. My fate was in his hands. So I swallowed hard and went to his office.
I told him how long I had been there, what all I offered the store in the way of knowledge and experience and asked him for $5.00 an hour. If I think back to that conversation I can hear his obnoxious voice and see him looking over the top of those stupid glasses he wore at the end of his nose. …. You can probably tell where this is going by the loving way I am talking about him. His answer was short and abrupt. “You’re not worth $5.00 an hour.” and with that he went on to ignore me.
“What? What do you mean I’m not worth $5.00 an hour?” Yes, I said it out loud. No filter was gonna catch my hurt response. I had poured 3 years of my high school life into this place. I now know just how precious that time was. He looked over his glasses at me again and said something about how he sees me running around looking like I’m working but he didn’t see the results of it. Then he had the nerve to say that I was just spinning my wheels!
I’ll show him spinning my wheels!
Yeah, I was young and I was angry so from that point on I did just what he said I had been doing. Nothing but as little as I could, I just looked really good doing it. I was purposely spinning my wheels to spite him. It was probably two weeks later that he came to me and said “I can see you working harder, I appreciate it. Keep it up.” What an out of touch and self important failure of a manager! Within a couple of months the company’s operating manager bought 3 stores of his own and recruited me to go start those stores with him. Goodbye Willie.
1Sam. 16:7 “God looks on the heart while man looks to the outward appearance.”
This verse is so important to understanding how God sees us and how we should strive to see others. When Willie looked at his employees he saw them through a diluted vision. He didn’t ever get to know them, he never spoke to anyone except to complain. He stayed in his office and ignored the store. He never took out a bag of groceries for an elderly person. He never stocked one box to a shelf, and he never saw who was actually running the store. He just saw things he wanted to see.
Jesus on the other hand came to this filthy planet and walked in a flesh and blood, emotion filled, weak mortal body. He had best friends who betrayed him, he had public accolades and public humiliation. He felt the loss of loved ones, he knows what its like to be us. He sees us in our inmost and intimate settings. He doesn’t look at what is visible, he understands us more deeply and better than we even know ourselves.
As we look at the people around us we can see what is visible. We can get an idea of what is going on inside, but we will never know or be able to truly empathize with them. Jesus came so that he could do just that. So as you look at that brother or sister that isn’t as holy as you think that they should be, stop and remind yourself that what you are looking at is not what matters to God. What we can’t see is what he cares about. Because of that we love. Just love, that’s all Jesus asks of us. Live his love. Aren’t you glad that what Jesus cares about in you doesn’t depend on what other people think?
Before we ask to see others through his eyes, we have to love them through his heart.
There are a ton of sermons and blogs and books about seeing the world through the eyes of Jesus. None of that is bad and certainly is the right thinking. There is a huge step that we miss though. Jesus sees the heart because he looks with his heart and not his eyes. I would encourage you to pray for a heart for others. Once we feel for others they way He does, than we can’t help but see them through his eyes.
Eph 3:18-19 “I ask that you’ll have the power to grasp love’s width and length, height and depth, together with all believers. I ask that you’ll know the love of Christ that is beyond knowledge so that you will be filled entirely with the fullness of God.”