Seeing with the eye of the Lord

(Click here for a video of John reading today’s Catch.)

Today’s Catch comes from a text I received last night from my daughter, Anne, who is an ER doctor in Hawaii and an avid surfer.

So I surfed this VERY local spot called “Tracks” this afternoon into the evening…

It was SOOO fun!!

I made many friends! Especially one local old dude who hated EVERYONE! No joke… He was yelling at everyone in the lineup… screaming about Hawaii and how all the white people have stolen his land, etc.

I befriended him.

He told me that I was a “peculiar” and amazing person … an instant “aura”… and that I “could make friends anywhere I go.”

He literally said “I am mean to everyone, but I can’t be mean to you … and that’s gotta say something.“ He even gave me his dinner!

I later found out that I stitched his head up five years ago in the hospital. That made him even more stoked. He has six children. I can pretty much surf “Tracks” whenever now…

Woop! woop!

And then she writes this:

I love finding light and compassion in guarded/angry humans. It’s one of my favorite things I do by accident.

What does this say about overcoming meanness, animosity and anger? What does this say about making friends with your enemies? What does this say about what is needed so much in our world right now, with so many factions and so much anger and separation? This man said that Anne could make friends with anybody because she made friends with him.

So it sounds like it’s up to us. Instead of complaining about how bad the world is, how about changing it one person at a time? This guy seemed literally impossible, but not to Anne.

What she’s saying here is that she finds value in everyone. She has treated literally thousands of people and most of them while not at their best. She says she finds value in people by accident, but I think it’s all in how she sees people. Beauty is in the eye of the Lord. You see what you look for.

Everybody out there on the waves saw a mean angry guy who wished they would all go away. I would have steered clear of somebody like that. But Anne saw someone different.