Open Eyes, Open Hearts

The 911 operator answers yet another emergency call, only to hear incessant barking on the other end of the line. The dispatcher senses the dog is trying to alert her to trouble and so sends police to investigate. Upon their arrival the police enter the home after Faith, a four year old Rottweiler, opens the door. They find an unconscious woman who has fallen out of her wheelchair. It sounds like a modern adaptation of the television classic, Lassie (I can hear Timmy saying “What’s wrong, girl?”), but it’s a true story.

Faith, the faithful companion of a woman who suffering from frequent seizures, has been trained to hit the speed dial button on the phone and open the door in cases of emergency. What’s more, Faith was trained to use her keen sense of smell to detect chemical changes in her master’s body and her bark to sound the alarm.

Amazing, a dog that can detect the needs of a human being! Truth be told, Faith puts many of us to shame. Far too often we are wrapped up so in our own world that we fail to even notice the needs of people who are all around us. We don’t detect the dangerous imbalance caused by pride. We fail to pick up on the scent of greed. We ignore the pain resulting from a rebellious heart. We are clueless about the judgmental spirit arising from hidden sin. We are oblivious to the fear growing out of doubt.

Mike Mason describes the problem like this: “And so we walk around with our head in the clouds, pass people on the street as if they were telephone poles, look them straight in the eye and hardly see them, and engage in conversations that are really only conversations with ourselves. Too often others are but the punctuation marks in the dry and windy monologues of our own self-centered existence” (The Mystery of Marriage, p. 38).

Could it be that we could benefit from some basic sensitivity training? The best training just may be walking with Jesus. It is only when we really see Jesus that we can really see people. Seeing Him interact. Watching Him care. Observing Him listen. And somehow translating His sensitivity into our own. Allowing Him to train us to the point where we can pick up on the real needs of the people we encounter. In a nutshell, learning to love.

“Now you can have sincere love for each other as brothers and sisters because you were cleansed from your sins when you accepted the truth of the Good News. So see to it that you really do love each other intensely with all your hearts” 1 Peter 1:22 NLT.

Open our eyes and hearts, O Lord!
— Bob Clark

11/9/2004