When the Holy Spirit Whispers “What about you?”

This is my copy of a drawing I saw last week that has haunted me.

At the International Justice Mission Global Prayer Gathering (What a mouthful!), a staff person from India, now a lawyer, shared that he had been born into the lowest cast – a Dalit. He was considered a non-person.

He shows a drawing of what his grandfather was required to do. He had to walk with a broom tied around his neck, trailing it behind, so it would wipe out his footprints, leaving the impression that no one had been there. Because he was “no one”.

My first response is horror.  How could anyone treat others like that??  But then that pesky Holy Spirit whispers to ME:

“What about you?”

Am I living out a lie that says anyone is invisible, or unworthy? Do I put an unwanted Harry Potter cloaking device on others?

I think about what Jesus said.

Mt. 10:29-31 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care.  And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

I think about the way Jesus lived.

• Seeing the bleeding woman who touched his robe.
• Seeing Zacchaeus up in a tree.
• Seeing the children in a crowd of adults.
• Seeing the Samaritan woman at the well.

And I think about the ways I DO live like others are wearing a cloaking device.

• When I turn away from talking to someone who is awkward or needy instead of turning towards them.
• When I don’t greet the elderly person I see on the street each day.
• When I walk by the homeless guy and turn my head.
• When I don’t learn the name of the person waiting on me in a restaurant.
• When I’m on my phone in line at the grocery store.

Just thinking… What about you?