When I think of pastors that have mattered to me most in my faith, I think first about the time after I accepted Christ and entered ministry.

Stanley Shipp served as a father to my young faith. He was thirty years my senior and blessed with a hawkish nose, thin lips, a rim of white hair, and a heart as big as the Midwest. His business cards, which he gave to those who requested and those who didn’t, read simply, ‘STANLEY SHIPP—YOUR SERVANT.”

I spent my first post college year under his tutelage. One of our trips took us to a small church in rural Pennsylvania for a conference. He and I happened to be the only two people at the building when a drifter, wearing alcohol like a cheap perfume, knocked on the door. He recited his victim spiel. Overqualified for work. Unqualified for pension. Lost bus ticket. Bad back. His kids in Kansas didn’t care. If bad breaks were rock and roll, this guy was Elvis. I crossed my arms, smirked, and gave Stanley a ‘get-a-load-of-this-guy glance.’ Stanley didn’t return it. He devoted every optic nerve to the drifter. Stanley saw no one else but him. ‘How long,’ I remember wondering, ‘since anyone looked this fellow square in the face?’ The meandering saga finally stopped, and Stanley led the man into the church kitchen and prepared him a plate of food and a sack of groceries.

As we watched him leave, Stanley blinked back a tear and responded to my unsaid thoughts. ‘Max, I know he’s probably lying. But what if just one part of his story was true?’ We both saw the man. I saw right through him. Stanley saw deep into him. There is something fundamentally good about taking time to see a person.

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This post was excerpted from Outlive Your Life (2010) Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used with permission. May not be further reproduced. All rights reserved.