Article September 28, 1998 Issue

Seeing not necessarily believing

How a change in perspective can improve our life

By Don Soule

What I saw that day at a meeting was a quarrelsome, rough-looking—and big—individual. He had confronted me and was blocking my way out of the room. I knew I should treat him as I would want to be treated, with compassion and respect, but how could I feel that way toward someone so unpleasant?

Rather than react, I immediately thought of this individual in the way that the Bible tells us that God made man, as His image and likeness. I silently prayed the Lord's Prayer (see Matt. 6:9–13), and when I came to the words "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors," I remembered how sometimes I had been quarrelsome myself. And yet my friends had forgiven me my unpleasant behavior. They undoubtedly saw that I wasn't "being myself." This person before me also wasn't being himself.

As I stood there, I recalled that once, when a teenage youth who looked like a gang member put his feet up on the seat in a bus I rode regularly, it had occurred to me that I could experiment with the approach of seeing him as God's child, made in His image. I prayed until I had a clear view of the real, perfect man. Then I quietly explained to the boy that he shouldn't put his feet on the seat. He responded by putting his feet down, and gradually we engaged in a very pleasant conversation.

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