This post is not about my religion, my belief in God nor is it a vehicle to “recruit” anyone. It’s about love & compassion and a simple statement: I see you.

Let me start off this post by telling you what inspired it.

Pastor Sameh Mourice of Kasr El Dobara Church of Cairo visited and spoke at my church last weekend. I enjoy going to church, the sermons preached and hearing the message from visiting pastors when they are there.  Pastor Mourice preached a touching sermon about love, prayer and truth in an uncertain and sometimes scary world. He shared examples of what they are doing in Egypt as a church showing love and compassion to the people in their region. This got me thinking about the true meaning of acknowledgement. I started thinking about how the world could change if we simply acknowledged someone with “I see you.”

 

This is not the parental “I see you” you may get if you are doing something wrong or thinking about it. Or the creepy “I see you.” Nor is it about the “see you when I see you.”

 

This “I see you” is full acknowledgement that a person is not invisible and they are not nothing, but someone special. Acknowledging that they are loved because we are all in this world together.

Two articles/posts I read today highlight and support this belief for me.

• The first is a story on Reddit, transcribed and shared on tickld.com, about a dad who found his daughter lying naked next to her boyfriend. The boyfriend, the dad learned, grew up in an abusive home and was homeless for several years. You can read it here.
• The second was a The Huffington Post article titled “Dear Parent: About THAT kid.” It’s written by a teacher speaking to parents about “THAT kid” explaining and showing details that there may be more than meets the eye about the problem child in the class.

At some point in history we began to make conclusions before we had any facts. My question is could our world change if we waited to pass judgment and act until we had all the facts?

Here are some other questions to consider:

How do you feel when someone looks you in the eye but walks by without a hello, good morning/afternoon/night, or a simple head nod? How many times do you pass others by without the same?

How does it feel when you’ve done something incredible and your contributions are overlooked, at home or at work?

What happens to a child when their artwork isn’t displayed on the fridge? Or, if it was up on the fridge but taken down?

We all seek acknowledgement. We all want to be seen and not overlooked.

A smile. A hello. A hug. A 2-minute conversation is sometimes, I believe most times, all it takes to help someone else feel connected and included.

How different could our world be through positive acknowledgement of other people in it?

I See You