The Great Measure of Discipleship

C.S. Lewis once wrote, "It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would strongly be tempted to worship... all day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations — these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit..."”

We have been talking in class this week about the way that we see and percieve other people. We even took some time in class on Monday to go and and write down our first impressions of the people that we saw when we were out and about... man... some of the things I thought were fairly negative. Not all of them, some of them were nice and positive, but a majority were negative. Then we read a talk called "The Measure Of Discipleship" from a BYU-Idaho devotional by Kenneth L. Southwick... it was brilliant and totally helped changed my view of how I look at people so I ask... how do you look at and perceive people? It's probably something that could be improved on. I know I will keep trying to improve so that I can see the people around me like Christ sees them.

Something Kenneth L. Southwick says in his talk, that goes along with the CS Lewis quote is, "Let me say it this precisely, our judgments about, our conclusions concerning, and our actions toward others all grow out of how we view them. If this is the case, then the question becomes, “do we see others as a spirit son or daughter of God, as a person, as a human being, as a soul of infinite worth?” Or do we see them as something less? Or do we fail to see them at all? ...How does that work? When we see others in the proper way, we cannot help but love and lift them, just as the Savior would. When we fail to see them in the proper way, we almost always devalue and dismiss them, like Christ never would."

How do we really view people?

Elder Dallin H. Oaks shared an experience,
"I was assigned to visit a less-active member. A successful professional many years older than I. Looking back on my actions, I realize that I had very little loving concern for the man I visited. I acted out of duty with the desire to report 100 percent on my home teaching. One evening, close to the end of the month, I phoned to ask if my companion and I could come right over and visit him. His chastening reply taught me an unforgettable lesson, ‘No I don’t believe I want you to come over this evening,’ he said, ‘I’m tired, I’ve already dressed for bed, I am reading, and I am just not willing to be interrupted so that you can report 100 percent on your home teaching this month.’ That reply still stings because I know he had sensed my selfish motivation.”

How do we really treat other people?