{"id":2355,"date":"2023-02-08T07:42:27","date_gmt":"2023-02-08T12:42:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=2355"},"modified":"2023-02-08T07:42:27","modified_gmt":"2023-02-08T12:42:27","slug":"eyes-to-see-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2023\/02\/08\/eyes-to-see-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Eyes to See"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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To listen to this reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a>.
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The first live rock concert I attended was September 1, 1967, at the Indiana State Fairgrounds Coliseum.
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The British invasion (spearheaded by the Beatles and the Rolling Stones) was still at full tide, and the crowd that day was excited about the headliners.\u00a0
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They were a group of five long-haired, nattily dressed, enthusiastic young men from Manchester named Herman\u2019s Hermits.\u00a0 Their dashing lead singer, Peter Noone, had assembled the group three years earlier.\u00a0 Since then they had topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic with songs like \u201cMrs. Brown, You\u2019ve Got a Lovely Daughter,\u201d and \u201cI\u2019m Henry VIII, I Am.\u201d\u00a0
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There was a warm-up group, of course.\u00a0 Tours normally trot out some lucky musicians on their way up \u2013 or perhaps an unlucky group on its way down \u2013 to entertain the crowd before the Real Show.\u00a0
\u00a0
The warm-up group that day was also British.\u00a0 Its four members were casually dressed.\u00a0 The lead singer did a lot of screaming.\u00a0 The lead guitarist did a lot of jumping.\u00a0 When their set was finished, they threw down their instruments.\u00a0 The drummer tossed his sticks into the third row.\u00a0
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The crowd\u2019s response was meh<\/em>.\u00a0 Polite applause.\u00a0 Get these guys off the stage.\u00a0 We want Herman<\/em>.\u00a0
\u00a0
By now, readers who are fans of classic rock will recognize who was warming up the crowd.\u00a0 It was The Who, the musical supergroup that would go on to sell more than 100 million records and significantly influence virtually every aspect of rock, both musically and technologically.\u00a0
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And Herman\u2019s Hermits?\u00a0 Peter Noone quit the band more than 50 years ago.\u00a0 The group is still touring and has had 19 different members along the way.\u00a0 The Hermits are essentially a musical afterthought.
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My chief memory of that day is that I got to see The Who.\u00a0 But I had no idea who<\/u> they were<\/em>.\u00a0
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In that sense, I didn\u2019t see them at all.\u00a0
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Every day we\u2019re faced with the temptation of minimizing those around us, as if one glance is all we need to assess someone else\u2019s value.
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But our perceptions fail us.
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Do we really have eyes to see the shy woman who cleans our school or workplace corridors after we go home; the bored teenager permanently glued to the flat screen of his video game; the quiet neighbor seemingly weighed down by worries he has never shared with anyone; and countless others who will cross our paths during the next 24 hours, virtually unnoticed?\u00a0
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It\u2019s astonishing, on the pages of Scripture, how often God\u2019s champions emerge from the ranks of the unrecruited and also-rans.\u00a0 There\u2019s Abraham, who was too old.\u00a0 Moses, who was too afraid.\u00a0 Gideon, who was too insecure. \u00a0Mary Magdalene, who was too broken. \u00a0James and John, who were too angry.\u00a0 Peter, who was too unsteady.\u00a0 Thomas, who was too skeptical.
\u00a0
But as Jesus assures us, \u201cThe last shall be first, and the first last\u201d (Matthew 20:16).\u00a0 The headliners will be forgotten and the warm-up band will be stars.\u00a0
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So, stop today.
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Ask God to open your eyes.\u00a0 Listen carefully.\u00a0 Be amazed.
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Everyone you meet, no matter what disguise they happen to be wearing, may very well be someone God is specially shaping to help grow his kingdom.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0
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We don\u2019t always know who or what we\u2019re seeing.
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But the God who is charting the course of history every new day can see for miles and miles.\u00a0

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to this reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here.\u00a0The first live rock concert I attended was September 1, 1967, at the Indiana State Fairgrounds Coliseum.\u00a0The British invasion (spearheaded by the Beatles and the Rolling Stones) was still at full tide, and the crowd that day was excited about the headliners.\u00a0\u00a0They were a group of five long-haired, nattily dressed, enthusiastic young… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2356,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[563],"class_list":["post-2355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-discernment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2355"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2355\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2357,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2355\/revisions\/2357"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}