Men are not trees walking.

Mark 8:23-25 tells the story of Jesus healing a blind man.

He takes the blind man and leads him out of town. He puts His hand on the blind man’s eyes and asks what did he see? The man replied he saw men as trees, walking.

So Jesus put His hand on his eyes again. And He had the man look up and the man began to see clearly.

This beautiful story is an insight into how we are to look at our fellow human beings. Clearly.

Sometimes, we tend to look at other human beings as objects, or in the man’s case, as “trees walking”.

When we see men (men in this context is mankind, not male in particular.) clearly, we’re able to serve them better. To love better. Because we stop seeing one another as mere obstacles or a means to an end.

In business (and in life) leverage is a valuable asset. But one mistake that this brings is the feeling that humans are a form of leverage. Humans are not leverage.

They may hold the leverage that we need to progress, but they themselves are not the leverage.

Why is this important to understand? Because when we see people as leverage, they become nothing more than something to just...use. And when we’re done “using” them, we put them down until we need them again.

This is not a human connection. This is not seeing men clearly.

I’ve been reading a great business book. And one that sparked this writing. It’s called “Thou Shalt Prosper” by Rabbi Daniel Lapin.

In the book, he discusses how Jews create community (this being part of a larger concept of how to build wealth which is the premise of the book).

He discusses how building a large circle of friends—not for the sake of “using” them—but for the sake of connectedness with another human being, can lead to wealth (not to mention kill loneliness).

This shifted my thinking about how I connect with other human beings. Up until that point I had become annoyed with networking events because I could never find people that I could “use” to further whatever agenda I had (I know, that sounds pretty horrible).

But as of recently, I’ve been able to network with people without the stress of trying to figure out if the next person that I meet will lead me to my first million dollars.

I’m able to genuinely be interested in who people are and what their journey has been like. And to lead with compassion for the lives of others. I took a step back and began to look at my fellow human being not as just another cog in my climbing-the-ladder machine, but as someone who is alive and is sharing this space called Earth with me. I finally see men clearly.

Men are not trees, walking.