Walking around Rwanda, you’d think I was some sort of celebrity. Everyone stopping and staring, asking to take pictures, kids running up to me just to touch my hand. Unfortunately, Taylor Swift and I don’t look enough alike for me to be mistaken for her. No, I just have white skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes. And out here in the villages, it’s basically impossible for me to go unnoticed. But here’s the thing, I have this superpower. When I’m in America, I can turn invisible to almost everyone. How wild is that?! People walk right by me, bump into me like they don’t see me and don’t look twice. In a crowd of people there, you’d probably never find me. Cool, right?
Now let’s look at it this way. What if I never came to Africa? What if I lived my whole life in America, among a sea of people I may be invisible to? What if I was disabled, homeless, orphaned? What if I didn’t have the ability to stand out? Living my life out being passed by and looked over. Kind of a sad picture to paint if you ask me. Thing is, there are hundreds of thousands of people living like that every day. Being treated as if they’re completely invisible, walked over as if they don’t exist. Waiting to be seen. Even I’m guilty of treating them that way. We pass by people every day who go unnoticed. Can you imagine going days, months, years without being seen? I can’t. It sounds horrible, and it is.
Listen to this though, you and I, we have the ability to change the cycle. God has given us these incredible things called eyes. And with them we can see! So I have a proposition for us. What if we used this amazing gift God had blessed us with to give right back and glorify Him? I believe we can do it by taking a look around and seeing His beautiful children. I mean REALLY seeing them. To the man laying on the sidewalk, give a smile and hello. To the woman standing next to you on the train, offer a conversation. To the child in the back of the room, lend a hug. We don’t have to volunteer at shelters, kitchens, or children’s homes to see these people. They’re already a part of our daily lives. They’re right in front of us, we just haven’t seen them. Well now’s our chance to change. It’s really quite simple, and could be someone’s difference between a life of invisibility and one of hope. I’m asking you to join me in this. Let’s let the invisible know we see them. Let them know they are known, and worthy of the time. So as you go about your day, open your eyes. Look around and see the people who might have been invisible before, and offer them a bit of God’s love. You never know, it could change your life too.
Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk,
Sum
