People Watching

Hobbies

All my life I have had two hobbies – bird watching and photography. I suppose I could add wildlife, natural history, and sport too by those first two will get me into enough trouble. I love travel too. I take thousands of photographs each year – well you can do that with digital photos can’t you. I used to take hundreds anyway as several boxes of old photos will attest. I will walk for hours just watching the birds and snapping anything that moves or flowers or anything else that we find. Apparently, my idea of gardening is to take the camera out there.

Just recently, I seem to be adding a third major hobby – people watching. This is a truly fascinating pastime. Go to any market and watch the hustle and bustle going on around you. It is just fascinating. People are fascinating – just don’t stare at them or they tend to get a bit upset by that !!

I think Jesus must have been the most observant people watcher ever. He always engaged people. He always talked to them, laughed with them, sympathised or empathised with them. Often, He probably wept with them. He was an engager. He still is.

Jesus engages people on a level most of us simply cannot achieve. He engages people where they are and not where He wants them to be. We tend to engage people where we can find a common ground. Jesus knows where they are at and engages them right there in the middle of all their joy, life, or mess. Jesus knows exactly how to challenge them, how to comfort them, how to please them, and how to convict them.

So we don’t have to do any of that. All we have to do is engage them and allow Jesus to do the work in them. What if a few of us were like Smith Wigglesworth. He boarded a train and sat in a compartment with two or three other men. As the journey progressed, all three fell to their knees crying out to God for mercy. When asked by Smith Wigglesworth what was happening, one of them blurted out, “Your presence convicts us!” Does my presence convict anyone? Does your presence convict anyone? I somehow doubt it, don’t you?

I have recently been convicted and burdened for the lost. Imagine what could happen if we all got even a little bit of that conviction; that burden. I firmly believe that revival is coming soon. What a preparation of our hearts to allow God to place a burden for the lost in there. What an asset if we were to convict even one person by our presence. What a revival if we would learn to step back and, having ushered in God’s presence, just allow Holy Spirit to do His job without our help - or hindrance.

People watching can be dangerous for those being watched as well as the watchers.