JESUS ILLUMINATES LIFE

The following video transcript has been lightly edited

Well, hello. I've been reading a new book by David Brooks on how to see and be seen. And, of course, this is a basic human need. We all need to be seen. It's what affirms our humanity, and when we're seen and heard, we feel loved and whole. And David Brooks talks about how there's two kinds of people in life. There's illuminators and diminishers. And illuminators are the folks that are really great at seeing others, they ask good questions. They're great listeners. They consider you and they engage you and they encourage you and somehow when you leave in an encounter with them, you feel like, oh man, I feel like my best self. I feel like my whole self. I feel seen and loved.

Diminishers are people who don't see you very well. They don't listen. It's mostly about them. And I think all of us at different times can be diminishers or illuminators.

As I was reading, I thought to myself about how Jesus is the ultimate illuminator. John describes him as the light of the world, the logos, the word, the wisdom of God that has come into the world as a human being, as flesh. And that he is life, and as life, he is the light of all people, John says.

So what we're going to do over the next few weeks is take a look at a variety of conversations that Jesus has with other people because he's amazing at seeing others and helping them feel seen, even those who are often unseen in the midst of society.

And today we're going to look at a story that's Jesus calling his early disciples and this disciple that he's calling is Nathaniel. And Nathaniel's suspicious. He's like, Jesus? From Nazareth? What good can come of Nazareth? But Philip, his friend, says, no, come and see. We've found the Messiah. And as Jesus engages Nathaniel, he says, hey, I see you.

I see that you're a person who follows God faithfully, who studies the scriptures, and is waiting for the Savior. That you're an honest Israelite. Who desires to see the world restored. And when Jesus says this to Nathaniel, he's instantly encouraged. He's seen, he feels heard, and he says, You must be the Messiah.

I'm in. I'm following you, too. There's three things I think we can take from this story. One, is that God sees each of us. Throughout the scriptures, God is known as the one who sees the heart.

And this is good news for you and I, because we have this desire to be seen and heard. And no matter who we are and the quality of our relationships, there are moments in which we don't feel entirely seen and heard. But what the message we receive in Christ and in the scriptures is that God sees us and hears us.

And so that's good news for us because it encourages us, it gives us life. Now, of course, there's the practical question of how do we really engage that? And so if you're feeling unseen and unheard right now by God, I would encourage you in three different ways.

One, I think there's a part of it where it's prayer. And in the midst of prayer, we hear God's voice that says, I know you, I love you, I died for you, I'm with you. Now, for some of us, that's not a skill we've developed yet, and so where else can we get it? Now, I would say that's part of the purpose of the church. Paul talks a lot about how the church is the body of Christ, meaning one of the places that we should feel seen and heard is the church.

Now, the church, candidly, has not always done a great job of this. One of the things we're trying to be here at Grace Community is a community that travels through the messiness of life together. Chooses hope and loves our world. And so we want to be a kind of place that does an awesome job of seeing and hearing you.

And so if you're not feeling seen and heard, come, come be with us. We wanna see you, we want to hear you. We wanna affirm your humanity. And then lastly, looking at the story, the story of Christ, of what God has done coming into the world on our behalf, but also our own story. I think sometimes it's hard to see that God is present and that God loves us in the midst of a challenging circumstance.

But often when we look back, we can see an opportunity, we can see a person, we can see a moment in which we were offered hope, we were offered a next step. And that might be a way that it encourages you to feel seen. So, going on, so God is the one who sees us and hears us. And Jesus call to his disciples is, come follow me.

And so as we follow Jesus, we should become people who see and hear others. We should help the unseen feel seen. That's one of the things that should result from our discipleship. Now this is something that is a skill that needs to be developed. We have to do some work if we want to be illuminators too.

We need to understand our own feelings and engage those. We need to improve our listening skills. We need to be better listeners. We also need to get great at things like, Hey, tell me more. Tell me more about your life. Tell me about your week. Tell me about your day. Tell me what you're looking forward to. Tell me the challenge that you're facing right now. All of these things are different ways in which we can be illuminators.

So my challenge to you would be reflect. Are you an illuminator? How are you doing in understanding your own emotional life? Connecting with the emotions of others. And being able to show up and offer them what they need to hear.

And this is the last part. And this is what we see. Nathaniel's skeptical. And Nathaniel needs something. Nathaniel needs to hear something. And Jesus tells him what he needs to hear. Illuminators consider others. People who see others consider others. That's how it works. And so you and I need to grow in our ability to see others.

And the way we do that is to consider where they are, what they have going on in their life, and how we might offer them a word of encouragement, a source of presence, and a sense that, hey, you're not in this alone.

And so for us, we struggle because we often are in our own heads. We often think about what we need, what we want, but what we wanna do is we want to be able to offer our friends and our family and our coworkers, and even those out in the world, a sense that they're seen.

And we're gonna do that by considering them, by entering in into their shoes, which of course is what Christ has done for humanity. God has entered into the shoes of humanity. And so we're then sent out to be people who consider others as well.

So my last challenge for you is this. What do the people in your life need to hear?

Nathaniel needed to hear that Jesus saw him. What can you say to your spouse? To your kids? To your friends? To people at work? That demonstrates that you've considered them. That you've heard them. Maybe they need a word of encouragement. Maybe they need you to just show up and walk alongside them. Maybe they need to hear you apologize because you've done some things or owned some things.

Whatever it is, be an Illuminator. Consider what the people close to you need to hear and speak those words. So that we can be Illuminators too. I hope you have a great week and I look forward to sharing this series with you as we go along. Take care.