Do you really see those around you?
The Baader-Meinhof phenomenon and Ministry
Has this ever happened to you?
You go to buy a new car. You want something functional but something unique. In our modern American culture, your car is so closely connected with how we and others around us view us. For most of us, we can spot our friends and family from the road easily because we can spot their vehicle.
So, finally, after the agonizing process of test driving, haggling down prices, being oversold, and manipulated, you drive off the lot and do whatever you can to convince yourself that you made the right choice. Yet now, as you are driving this car that you convinced yourself was unique, it is all of a sudden popping up everywhere. Not just the car, but your car in the exact color. If you had asked yourself if you had seen that exact car before, you would’ve said maybe once or twice, but now it feels like every vehicle is that same car.
This is the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon. There were always that many cars just like yours, but now your brain is primed to see them. The same thing can happen in our vocabulary. When we hear a word for the first time and we do the work to look it up and find out exactly what it means, we start seeing or hearing it everywhere. You pick up a book that you know you have read before, and there is that word. You talk to someone, and all of a sudden they are saying the word—a word that you were not even aware of until just a little while ago.
The most common reason this happens is that our attention span is limited, and we only have the ability to process so much. When you are driving, very rarely are you counting the number of cars that are a specific make or model. You are, hopefully, focused on driving and avoiding unnecessary distractions.
For those of us who are parents of children with disabilities, we may not be familiar with the phrase Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, but the idea is burned into our brains. We know our kids, and we live with their diagnosis around the clock. Now that we are aware of it, we start rethinking everything in light of it and seeing all of the missed cues around us with the people that we love. We start to realize the number of people we know who are on the autism spectrum. We are not official doctors, but the signs are there, and now they seem to shine like a bright light that we cannot look away from. I can see the kid not making eye contact. I can clock the facial features of William syndrome from a mile away. I see the struggling young person who is labeled as a problem as made in the image of God and it causes may be something they can’t even help it.
Those with disabilities are all around you. From the visible disabilities like those with mobility challenges to the invisible disabilities often ignored, undiagnosed, or mislabeled. I am not asking you to become a doctor or to try and diagnose everyone but you need to see everyone made in the image of God for who they are.
C.S. Lewis said “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 be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare.” It begins with seeing them.
If you are a Christian, I want to encourage you to take a second and truly look at those around you. See them as made in the image of God. Do not ignore their disabilities and limitations. See them. Really see them. Start to pay attention.
This is the first step in Christ-like behavior. Over and over again in the Gospels, we see Jesus seeing—truly seeing—people, regardless of their social status, ability, or past.
Mark 10:46-52 illustrates this well.
And they came to Jericho. And as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside. And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” And Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart. Get up; he is calling you.” And throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. And Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” And the blind man said to him, “Rabbi, let me recover my sight.” And Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your faith has made you well.” And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way.
Those with Jesus did not want the blind man to be seen or heard but Jesus saw and heard him. You cannot love, serve, or minister to those you don’t see. Are we so busy and focused on our own issues that we miss those whom God has placed around us to bless? The people have always been there. The question is whether our eyes are open to see them.