A thought by Kyle Idleman, from his book, One at a Time (p. 25). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.)
Kyle continues, "When someone stood in front of Jesus, time stopped. Everything else in his life—all his concerns, his agenda, his goals—blurred and disappeared. He was always fully present.
"One at a time is the Jesus way of changing the world."
Kyle goes on, "If you took a course in psychology, you’ve probably seen the 'Spot the Gorilla' video. Six people stand in a circle. Three are in white shirts, three in black. Two hold basketballs. You’re asked to watch a one-minute video and keep track of how many times the basketball is passed by the people in white shirts. The six people start moving about and passing the balls. In the middle of the video, a gorilla walks into the crowd of six people, faces the camera, thumps his chest, then steps off screen. The gorilla is in the video for nine seconds.
"Would you see the gorilla?
"Of course you would. How could a gorilla go unnoticed? Right? Wrong. When they did this experiment at Harvard University, half the people didn’t see the gorilla. I’ve ruined the experiment for you to do on yourself, but search for 'Spot the Gorilla' on YouTube and try it on someone else.
"How could they have missed the gorilla? Simple. It wasn’t what they were looking for. They had an agenda: to watch the people in the white shirts and count how many times they passed the basketball. That’s how they missed it. They were preoccupied with the crowd and focused on what the crowd was doing."
Kyle says, "What do you see? In your home? When you’re driving? At work? Walking through your neighborhood? At the grocery store?
"What do you see? You probably see what you’re looking for, what you’ve trained your eyes to look for. What you’ve been told to look for. I bet you’d be stunned at what you don’t see."
As Kyle was contemplating on this thought he then said, "I began to realize how often I was focusing on the crowds and not noticing the one."
During this same time he said, "for the first time I prayed a prayer that I have tried to pray every day since: Jesus, give me your eyes for the one. Help me to see people the way you see people."
Now that is a great way to make a difference, one at a time. There are so many people in our world who want and need to be noticed. We need to also pray that prayer, don't we? "Jesus, give me your eyes for the one. Help me to see people the way you see people." Yes, yes! #continuethought
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