November 2007

Can I See You Standing There?

Dear Friends,

Not too long ago I was traveling and found myself engaged in a pleasant conversation with the facilities superintendent of a highway rest area in Illinois. He was an older gentleman who obviously took great pride in the neatness, landscaping, and condition of the extensive facilities he oversees. I commented that I had stopped at this rest area a number of times over the years, and that I was consistently impressed with how professionally maintained the site is. Not surprisingly, he was glad for a bit of praise for his work and for the fact that someone noticed it. I suspect that he doesn’t receive many compliments on a regular basis, as most of the folks who use the facility are tax-paying consumers who “expect” things to be clean and neat.

How many more people like this man do we meet every day: hard-working, dedicated individuals who take pride in doing work that may not be – or seem – glamorous to others but which, while we take it for granted, is essential to the public good? There are far more of them than we can count. How kind and considerate have I been to many of these people? Well, I try to be pleasant, to make eye contact, and to thank them for even routine transactions. But I also know that I fail sometimes; that I am probably curt and too hurried on occasion; and that sometimes my natural-born impatience is all that the other person sees in me. And this is not how I would have them see me. I really do have a kinder side. But when I don’t see another person, when I am not convinced of their intrinsic value, what does it say?

Like it or not, how we treat other people, and especially the way we treat the more vulnerable members of our society, pretty much determines whether or not the message of the Gospel has soaked into our bones.

I learned of a school where one of the administrators refused to invite the custodial employees to any staff celebrations. Someone told me recently that some children of privilege refer to the family’s child-care employees as “my worker”. No names attached, mind you, just “my worker.” And, yes, several years ago, there was objection on the part of some people to an assisted living facility here in our community because it might bring in people who are “not our own,” meaning, I imagine, those coming “from elsewhere” to provide essential services.

As slow as I am to remember on some days, and as often as I fail to recognize the fact sometimes, Jesus is always present in the lives, a tion, faces, and hands of those with whom we come in contact each day, especially on the part of those who serve us. What causes me a great amount of angst is that I so often fail to see His face and to respond to His kindness to me through them. Perhaps the Gospel needs to soak into me just a bit more?

Faithfully in Christ,

(The Venerable Canon) Theodore W. Bean, Jr.