Global Connections  

              Volume 10, Issue 1

Look Beyond

Sister Barbara McMullen

The other day, as I was pondering what to write for this issue of Global Connections, an old song popped into my head: “Look Beyond the bread you eat, see your Savior and your Lord.  Look beyond the cup you drink, see his love poured out as blood.”  Whenever that kind of thing happens, I tend to pay attention because I feel that the Holy Spirit is trying to tell me something.

Pondering those two words: “Look Beyond” brought the whole idea of seeing beyond the surface of things.  In an age of instant answers, quick impressions, and rapid judgments, it is easy to live at the surface of things.  We scroll, skim, and summarize; we categorize people by a single comment or moment; we expect situations to unfold as they always have.  Yet some of the most important human truths—and the most transformative moments—are found only when we look beyond what first appears.  “Look beyond” is both an invitation and a challenge; to slow down, to question assumptions, and to allow reality to be richer and more complex than our expectations.

To look beyond is to acknowledge that our minds naturally take shortcuts.  Assumptions help us navigate daily life, but they can also narrow our vision.  When we assume we already know what someone is going to say, we stop listening.  Have you ever done that with another Sister in Community?  When we assume a challenge has only one possible outcome, we stop imagining other alternatives.  When we assume today will be exactly like yesterday, we miss the subtle possibilities unfolding right in front of us.  Expectations – whether hopeful or fearful – can become like tinted lenses:  they color what we see before we’ve truly examined it.  I read a story the other day that truly illustrates false assumptions or expectations. 

There was a seven-year-old little girl in a hospital dying of cancer.  Her Daddy had left the day she was born.  Her mother had brought her to the hospital and never returned.  She was all alone.  She knew she was dying; she had heard the doctors and nurses discussing her case.  It just so happened that there was a man who came to the hospital each week to read to the sick kids.  His name was
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Mike and he was a biker, with tattoos covering both arms, a beard down to his chest, and he was big and loud and rode a motorcycle.  The first assumption might be that someone like Mike wouldn’t be in a children’s hospital at all, especially reading to sick kids.  But there he was sitting beside a little girl, reading to her about a dancing giraffe!  The little girl, wise beyond her years, asked Mike if he would be her “Daddy” until she died.  He didn’t know how to respond; he could only feel the hole that lived in his chest since the day his own daughter had died at 16 in a car accident.  Finally, he said, “Honey, I’d be honored but I gotta be honest with you – I’m not very good at this daddy thing anymore.  I might mess it up.”  Her whole face lit up like sunrise.  “That’s okay.  You can practice on me,” she said.  And so he came everyday to read to her.  My point is, judging by his looks on the outside, we might have dismissed Mike.  We may have felt some fear of a Harley riding motorcycle guy who looked pretty rough around the edges.  But what was really below the surface was a heart filled with compassion, a heart that didn’t want this little one to die alone.  Someone whose heart was filled with love.

The practice of looking beyond invites us to hold our assumptions lightly.  Rather than accepting initial impressions as final truth, we pause long enough to wonder:  What else could be true here?  What might we be missing?  What is the story beneath the story?  It’s not so much about doubting everything but about staying open to discovery.  When we look beyond the surface of a person, we may discover resilience where we assumed weakness, wisdom where we expected simplicity, tenderness beneath the rough edges, or even burdens beneath confident smiles.  We humans are endlessly layered.  To encounter another person with depth requires curiosity, humility, and patience. 

Oftentimes, misunderstandings are rooted not in facts, but in unspoken expectations.  We assume others will understand our intentions, interpret our words the way we meant them, and when they don’t, we feel disappointed or offended.  When this happens to me, and I look beyond the immediate frustration, I often discover unmet needs, differing experiences, or genuine misunderstandings rather than any kind of malice.  Looking deeper allows us to respond not simply to someone’s words or actions but to the human reality behind them. 

When we look beyond, we often discover other possibilities hidden from our deeper knowing.  Even in our struggles we can discover growth; waiting can reveal wisdom and losing a loved one can reveal new ways of loving.  (Like Mike in the story).  Looking beyond calls us not only to perceive more deeply, but to trust in Providence more boldly.  Expectations tend to confine us to what has already been.  Imagination allows us to consider what could be.  To look beyond for our Congregation is to believe that the present moment does not contain the whole story, that change can happen, that hope can emerge in a vision we have not yet seen.  Looking beyond is a commitment to truth, to mystery, to a grace-filled future that Providence provides us.  It calls us to look with fresh eyes, to hold expectations gently, allowing space for surprise.  We can remember that each of us carries a Providence story deeper than we will ever fully know. 

Ultimately, to look beyond is to live with depth.  It is to honor the unseen; to believe that truth is often discovered beneath the surface, in places where patience and compassion are required.  It is to choose understanding over assumptions, curiosity over certainty, and openness over the comfort of the familiar. 

When we “look beyond” we step into a more expansive way of seeing – a way that enriches our vision for our future.  Wherever Providence leads, we will follow.  In this new year, especially in this Congregational Chapter year, let’s hold every moment as one that is more than we perceive at first glance and, hopefully, we will remember to search for the deeper story.  Our Chapter theme:  “Holy Adventure: The Path to Possibilities” invites us to “look beyond” and to resonate with the words from Scripture: “Behold, I make all things new.”  Happy New Year! 

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