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2: Attending Well to God and Others · Finding God at Work

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(Transcribed by TurboScribe. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Hi, I'm Chris.
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This is Finding God at Work.
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Just a reminder that Finding God at Work
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isn't just a podcast, it's also an online
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course.
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Check it out at findinggodatwork.org.
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Our current series is a guide on the
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side, how to have joyful spiritual conversations at
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work.
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I'm curious, when you pick up your phone,
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how many notifications do you have?
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I have an iPhone, so there's this thing
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called the Notifications Center, where when I swipe
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down from the bottom of my phone, it's
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got this list of notifications that I haven't
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tapped on yet.
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So, I thought I'd just go through and
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see what mine are today.
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I've got one from TaskRabbit, which is an
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app I use to hire somebody to help
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me move a piano recently.
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I've got one from Google Maps.
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I've got several from podcasts, different podcast episodes
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that I've downloaded.
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A couple from Wonder Health, which is a
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weight loss app I attempted to start using
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and have not kept up with.
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A couple from BePresent, which is an app
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that I use to shut down other apps
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in an attempt to use my phone less.
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And then several from Reminders, which is just
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the app where I have specific reminders for
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myself.
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I wonder what your notifications list looks like.
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With phone notifications, I'm reminded of, I don't
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know if you've ever been in a classroom
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with little kids, and you ask a question,
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and then all these hands shoot up in
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the air, and kids are like, pick me,
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pick me, pick me!
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And that's kind of how I imagine the
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notifications on our phone.
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The phone notifications are like, pick me, pay
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attention to me, I'm what matters, blablabla.
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And it's really fascinating.
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We live in what many people have called
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the attention economy, where these powerful corporate interests
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have fine-tuned a way of getting your
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attention, and the way they do it is
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through a device that you tend to carry
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around with you all the time.
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That's kind of scary when you think about
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it, because is our attention something that should
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be so influenced by corporate interests?
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Is our attention something that we should just
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cede control of to the notifications on our
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phone?
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I like to call my phone a distraction
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box, because that's so often how it functions
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in my life.
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I'm trying to do one thing, and then
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I pick up my distraction box, and I
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get distracted.
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I get thrown off track, and I'm doing
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something else instead.
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My attention has been diverted.
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And as we're in this series about how
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to help our friends who do not yet
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know Jesus, attention is really important.
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Attention is actually the starting place for evangelism.
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When we think about evangelism, we tend to
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think about conversations, and that's even what we've
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emphasized in the title of the series, how
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to have joyful, spiritual conversations.
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But before you can have a conversation with
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someone, you have to notice them.
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You have to pay attention to them.
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And so attention comes before evangelism.
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Attention comes before any kind of helpful or
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joyful or meaningful conversation we could have.
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The question is, how are we attending to
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other people around us?
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And as we turn to scripture, we'll find
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that attention is actually right at the center
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of our life with God.
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Our way of attending to God and our
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way of attending to other people are connected.
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So I want to look at a couple
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of scripture passages that look at that and
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a couple of helpful thinkers who have reflected
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on scripture and the idea of attention and
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how it relates to other people.
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And then I want to get really practical
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and suggest some ways to help us engage
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attention as a kind of skill.
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Okay, so attention, it is a skill, but
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it's more than a skill.
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It's what I would call a way of
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being in the world.
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And we see this in scripture.
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So, for example, in Psalm 16, verse 8,
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David writes, Wow.
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What would it be like to go through
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your day having set the Lord always before
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you?
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This is talking about where is your heart
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looking?
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Where is your heart resting?
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Where are you attending?
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Are you aware of the presence of God
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right there with you?
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Because he is at my right hand, I
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shall not be shaken.
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And that is the effect of that kind
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of approach to life, that way of being
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in the world.
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When we learn to attend to God and
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to his gracious and loving and holy presence
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with us right there, it turns out we
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are not shaken.
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We experience deeper peace.
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We have a capacity to navigate the challenges
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of life that's qualitatively different than when we
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don't attend to the presence of God with
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us.
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Okay, but this kind of attentiveness, this attentiveness
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to God also draws us to our Jesus
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is continually connecting love of God and love
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of neighbor in his teachings.
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And one place where he does this is
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in the gospel of Luke chapter 10, where
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he's specifically illustrating the connection between love of
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God and love of neighbor.
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So I'm going to read it.
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It's a little bit of a longer section,
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kind of interrupt myself as we go.
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But starting in verse 25, Okay,
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so pause there.
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There's this question about how does eternal life
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work?
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What's our part of eternal life?
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How do we engage the gracious gift of
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eternal life from God?
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And Jesus kind of turns the question around.
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He's like, well, what do you say?
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And the man says, well, I guess it
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comes down to loving God and loving neighbor.
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And Jesus says, that's right.
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That's how you live an eternal kind of
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life is by loving God and loving neighbor.
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They're connected.
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Our love for God and I would say
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our attention to God is intimately bound up
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with our love for neighbor, our attention to
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neighbor.
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But then the lawyer is like, okay, but
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who's my neighbor, right?
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Who are we talking about here?
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And then Jesus's answer to that is this
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famous story.
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So I'll read the story.
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Jesus replied, a man was going down from
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Jerusalem to Jericho and he fell among robbers
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who stripped him and beat him and departed,
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leaving him half dead.
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Now, by chance, a priest was going down
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that road.
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And when he saw him, he passed by
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on the other side.
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So likewise, a Levite, when he came to
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the place and saw him passed by on
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the other side.
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But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to
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where he was.
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And when he saw him, he had compassion.
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He went to him and bound up his
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wounds, pouring on oil and wine.
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Then he set him on his own animal
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and brought him to an inn and took
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care of him.
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And the next day he took out two
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denarii and gave them to the innkeeper saying,
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take care of him.
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And whatever more you spend, I will repay
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you when I come back.
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Which of the three do you think proved
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to be a neighbor to the man who
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fell among the robbers?
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He said, the one who showed him mercy.
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And Jesus said to him, you go and
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do likewise.
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Okay, this is such a beautiful passage here.
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There's so many layers, but I want to
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look at just a couple turns of phrase,
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right?
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So did you notice how the priest and
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the Levite responded?
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They saw the man lying on the side
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of the road, right?
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They saw him.
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They at least noticed him, but they did
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not engage further.
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They passed by on the other side.
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Contrast this with the Samaritan.
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The Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where
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he was.
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And when he saw him, he had compassion.
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So the Samaritan, the first thing is he
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saw this man.
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He noticed him.
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He paid attention.
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And then out of that attention, he moved
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into action.
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He was able to love him.
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Then Jesus, when he's kind of bringing this
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back around to the questioner, the lawyer, he's
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like, okay, who is a neighbor, right?
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And the lawyer, again, good at giving the
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right answer, right?
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Says the one who showed him mercy.
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And so the lawyer, at least intellectually, is
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understanding, oh, that's what I'm supposed to do.
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I'm not supposed to ask who is my
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neighbor.
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I'm supposed to be a neighbor to anybody
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that I might come across.
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I'm supposed to notice them.
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And then as I notice them, I'm supposed
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to move into action, a merciful action to
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love them and take care of their needs.
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And then Jesus affirms that and says, yeah,
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that's your part of entering into eternal life.
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You go and do likewise.
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Wow.
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Okay.
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So we can't move into having mercy on
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people.
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We can't move into helping meet people's practical
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needs.
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We can't move into even having good conversations
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with people unless we see them first.
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We see them, we notice them, and then
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we respond.
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Now, another thing that's compelling about this passage,
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I think, is that this was not on
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the agenda of the Samaritan, right?
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The Samaritan had his own journey, right?
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He had places to go, things to do.
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He did not have a scheduled plan for
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doing mercy ministry.
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He just happened to come across this man
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who needed help.
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And so he rearranged his journey, right?
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He took him to an inn.
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He took care of him.
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He spent all night there.
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The next day, he gives money to the
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innkeeper saying, take care of him.
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I will repay you when I come back,
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right?
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So that clearly this guy has somewhere to
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go.
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He's got to go back to his original
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responsibilities, but he was willing to interrupt things
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and rearrange them because of this man who
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he just noticed as he went along.
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This is an illustration of attention as a
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way of being in the world.
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If we think about evangelism as just something
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we do sometimes, like we're going to pick
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a time and go do evangelism, that's not
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necessarily a bad thing, but that's not what
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Scripture is describing here, right?
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Evangelism is what comes out of being attentive
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to God and to other people all of
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the time.
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I've said the Lord always before me, because
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he is at my right hand, I shall
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not be shaken.
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That's an all the time thing.
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It's a way of being in the world.
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And then as we go through the world,
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like the Samaritan, we have our eyes open
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to the people around us, people who we
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can love.
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So I want to draw on a couple
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of writers who have been helpful for me
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in thinking about this.
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One of them, just a really brief quote,
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Leighton Ford from his wonderful book, The Attentive
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Life.
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He comments on this passage of the Good
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Samaritan specifically.
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Isn't that beautiful?
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We're paying attention to others, but we're also
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paying attention to God because he's the one
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who's going to supply what we need when
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there's that interruption to our agenda, when it's
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unscheduled attentiveness, unscheduled evangelism.
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Okay, another helpful book, The Nine Arts of
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Spiritual Conversations by Mary Schaller and John Curley.
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This is actually the same title as a
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course called The Nine Arts of Spiritual Conversations,
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which is actually one of the courses I
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teach through Mission Central at churches sometimes.
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So if you'd be interested in that, let
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me know.
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From the book here, they're talking about nine
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arts of spiritual conversations, and the first art
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is noticing.
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So they write, a precursor of knowing someone
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is noticing them.
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Relational interaction has the same starting point for
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all of us, simply in noticing another person.
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Noticing is not only a first step in
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becoming aware of another person, but also in
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paying attention to God's activity in your world.
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You see there again how they're tying together,
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we're fostering, noticing, we notice other people, and
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we notice what God is doing, right?
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As we become noticers, as we become attentive
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people, we're picking up on what God is
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doing as we love other people.
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Okay, they cite some examples of Jesus doing
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this in scripture.
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When Jesus noticed people, it was good news
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for them.
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When we notice people, it should be good
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news for them too.
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Because people matter to God, they should matter
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to us.
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Giving people the gift of our time and
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attention demonstrates their value to us as a
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treasure of God.
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When we notice people, we assign worth to
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them as image bearers of the Most High
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God.
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Our noticing says, you are worthy of attention
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from me and from God.
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Isn't that beautiful?
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You are worthy of attention from me and
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from God.
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Okay, on that theme of like the worthiness
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of the people around us, as we think
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about how we're paying attention to other people,
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it really does come down to what is
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our conviction about the people around us?
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Do we think that some people matter and
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others don't?
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Do we think that we only need to
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pay attention to people if they're part of
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our agenda or our idea of what matters?
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Or does every single human being matter, even
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when they're unexpected?
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Does every single person deserve our attention?
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Again, we're limited human beings.
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We can't always give long sustained attention to
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everyone.
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But as we're practicing that attention to God,
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he'll show us the people, oh, we need
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to pay attention right now.
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Here's the person right in front of me.
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And so we need an imagination to be
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sanctified so that we can see how valuable
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and precious the people around us really are.
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And one writer who I think really helps
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with that imagination aspect of looking at the
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world is C.S. Lewis.
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So I want to read from his essay,
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originally a sermon, actually, The Weight of Glory.
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And he talks about this, about how are
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we thinking about the people around us?
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And it's just, it's so evocative, his turns
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of phrase.
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So I just want to read it, right?
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And he's been talking about the idea of
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glory and how we have potential for glory
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in the future because of God's grace.
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You know, we don't want that to go
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to our head.
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So he says, it may be possible for
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each to think too much of his own
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potential glory hereafter.
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It is hardly possible for him to think
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too often or too deeply about that of
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his neighbor.
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The load or weight or burden of my
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neighbor's glory should be laid daily on my
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back, a load so heavy that only humility
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can carry it and the backs of the
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proud will be broken.
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It is a serious thing to live in
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a society of possible gods and goddesses, to
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remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person
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you talk to may one day be a
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creature which if you saw it now, you
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would be strongly tempted to worship or else
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a horror and a corruption such as you
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now meet, if at all, only in a
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nightmare.
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All day long, we are in some degree
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helping each other to one or other of
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these destinations.
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And a little further down, he says, next
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to the blessed sacrament itself, your neighbor is
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the holiest object presented to your senses.
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Isn't that incredible to ponder?
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The people around you, they have this potential
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for glory that one day they could be
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luminous creatures so resplendent we would be tempted
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to worship them.
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Or they might be horrors, shadows and shells
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of humans are meant to be.
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That's where all of us are headed one
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way or the other, more and more glorious
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by God's grace or less and less human,
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less and less what image bearers of God
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were meant to be.
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And if we take people seriously in that
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way, we will pay attention to them.
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Next to the blessed sacrament itself, your neighbor
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is the holiest object presented to your senses.
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And in case you're not familiar, blessed sacrament
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is a way of referring to the Eucharist.
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So Christ's presence in the Eucharist, the idea
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that when we receive the bread and wine
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of communion, Christ is present there.
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So that's holy.
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We receive that with reverence.
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And C.S. Lewis is saying, do you
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have that kind of reverence for the people
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around you?
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Because they're filled with potential for glory.
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God needs to bless our imagination so we
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can look at people like this.
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And as we look at people like this,
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we will find there are opportunities for speaking
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with them, for having a conversation with them,
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for like the Good Samaritan, moving from attention
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into action.
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So a couple of thoughts about how to
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develop that kind of skill.
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Again, this is much greater than a skill.
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It's a way of being in the world.
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It's an approach to all of life.
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It's a manifestation of how we inhabit God
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and how God inhabits us and how that
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turns our hearts towards other people.
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But just a couple more skill ideas here
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at the end.
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One is what some leaders have called arrow
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prayers.
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So when you see somebody maybe at the
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grocery store or you're like stopped at a
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traffic light and you notice them, right?
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You just, you happen to notice them.
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Because you're practicing this habit of noticing, right?
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To just pray a really quick prayer for
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them.
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Like God bless that person, right?
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Sometimes because I don't know their name, I'll
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just say, God bless the man or God
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bless the woman.
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God bless the child, right?
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And just shoot up a quick arrow prayer
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for them.
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Sometimes you can tell something that's going on
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for somebody else.
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You can tell they're anxious or whatever.
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So you can pray, God, I pray that
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they would find your peace, right?
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Just quick arrow prayer.
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That's a skill you can develop.
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Okay, here's another thing.
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When you have an interaction with somebody, pray
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for them after the interaction.
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So this is something I found like after
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parties or whatever.
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I tend to be very gregarious at parties.
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I talk with lots of different people, right?
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Maybe you're more like you find one person
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in the corner and talk with them the
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whole time.
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Okay, either way, when you get in your
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car and you're driving home, pray for the
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people you just hung out with, right?
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Lift up to God in prayer, the people
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you just had the chance to interact with.
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This practice will kind of turn your heart
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to be aware of, oh, it's not just
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about me in that person.
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It's me in that person and the presence
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of God.
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And then the next time you interact with
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them, you're going to have that awareness of
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prayerful attention, kind of suffusing your interaction with
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them, knitting your attention to other people together
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with your attention with God as time goes
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on.
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Okay, so those are just a couple practical
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suggestions.
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Arrow prayer and prayer after to help us
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develop in this skill of attentiveness.
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But most of all, we need God's grace.
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We need God's grace to change us into
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the kind of people who are attentive to
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him and to others all day long.
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Lord Jesus, thank you that you pay attention
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to us, that you were the attentive one,
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that you always were able to stop and
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to pivot, to be interrupted, to see and
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to love the person in front of you.
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And we want to follow you.
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We want to be like you in that
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respect.
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So send your Holy Spirit on our minds,
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on our eyes, that we would think of
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people as beautiful, as full of potential for
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glory, as precious, and that we would see
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them and attend to them well.
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Jesus, do your work in us as we
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do our work with you.
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Amen.
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Thanks for listening.
20:46
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20:49
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