Enjoying People

And Levi gave a big reception for Him in his house, and there was a great crowd of tax collectors and other people [i.e., "sinners" - vs 30] who were reclining at the table with them. - Luk 5:29 NASB

When Jesus came to the place [where Zaccheus, a very rich tax collector had climbed up into a tree to see Jesus], Jesus looked up and said to him, "Zaccheus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house." And he hurried and came down and received Him gladly. - Luk 19:5-6 NASB

It is apparent that the Lord Jesus enjoyed people.  And not just people, but individuals.  Tax collectors and sinners are street smart people who can size up others quickly, and who would have no patience or tolerance for a religious phony.  Jesus' popularity with the non-religious "fringe" people is certainly amazing, especially considering that "fringe" people are frequently that at the social margins because they have personality issues or have poor social skills that make them difficult to be around.

Do I really enjoy people?  This passage from Blue Like Jazz has often intrigued me.

So much of what I know about getting along with people I learned from the hippies. They were magical in community. People were drawn to them. They asked me what I loved, what I hated, how I felt about this and that, what sort of music made me angry or sad. They loved me like a good novel, like an art film, and this is how I felt when I was with them. I was never conscious of what my hands were doing or whether or not I sounded immature when I talked. I had always been so conscious of those things, but living with the hippies I forgot about myself. And when I lost this self-consciousness, I gained so much more. I gained an interest in people outside my own skin...

Do I enjoy individuals like a good book, find them fascinating, savor them like a glass of wine?  Three things are necessary for us to deeply enjoy people:

1. We can't be in a hurry.  We have to have time for people.  We can't be in the mode of "spit it out; I've got places to go and things to do."  Oswald Chambers said, "You can always recognize who has been through the fires of sorrow and received himself, and you know that you can go to him in your moment of trouble and find that he has plenty of time for you. But if a person has not been through the fires of sorrow, he is apt to be contemptuous, having no respect or time for you, only turning you away. If you will receive yourself in the fires of sorrow, God will make you nourishment for other people."

2.  We have to believe that there's gold in each person. “I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn’t learn something from him,” said Galileo.  Each person has a story, an experience with God, things that we can glean. Are we willing to dig in, to sort through a 55-gallon drum of cow manure if necessary to find the gold?

3.  We have to have a childlike wonder and can't have a critical spirit.  We have to accept each person as if they perfectly who God wants them to be.  When we go to the zoo we don't think "That hippopotamus has an eating problem" or "What's the matter with Mr. Lion - where'd he get his anger issues and dominance problems?"  They just are. 

There's a place for helping people grow and learn, but if we don't work from a foundation of enjoying them for who they are, we are limited in how much we can help them grow.  People can smell when they are your project and you are playing God. 

Bless someone today by enjoying them - just as they are.