A few weeks ago during prayer service, I watched a man behind me engrossed in his prayer. He sat closely staring at pages before him, following along carefully and underlining every word with his hands as he said them. His concentration and deliberation were moving enough until I noticed the pages he was so focused on were blank. It took me a moment to realize what I was seeing. The man of course was blind, but his focus on the words… It was as if not only was he touching every dot of every letter of every word, but they in turn were touching him.
I was very humbled. I am able to see the words, to explore their meaning and to study further commentators who could add deeper insight to my supplication, but instead of taking advantage of my gift of visual focus, I often find myself void of spiritual focus. In contrast, the blind gentleman had every reason to be distracted, but was drawn instead to every letter of every word. He may have been physically blind, but he was spiritually attentive.
Often when we present recognition within our organizations, we have the ability to go beyond the artistic beauty and introduce depth to each person we display. Yet we believe the surrounding aesthetics will equally represent each of the individuals. We need to focus on the people we are recognizing. We need to appreciate the contributions, sacrifices and significance that are the depth of their being. We need to know what makes them different from the others we are honoring. We need to know more and share more. We need to be able to touch them and be touched by them. That is the recognition we should strive to present and share. Otherwise, we are truly blind.