Introduction: St. Francis of Assisi's Example

Note: This is the introduction to the "Confessions of a Social Bumpkin" series, which will give you a basic overview about what this blog is all about. I hope you like it. I previously posted this on Facebook.

Hello Friends,

I've been thinking a lot about the lessons I continue to learn about how to relate and socialize with people, and I've finally decided to write down some of those lessons I've learned over the years. Years ago, I was a very...very... VERY shy little boy, and I wasn't very good at interacting with people. But through a lot of experiences that God has put me through, I've learned a lot about how to be around people and how to treat people. Don't get me wrong, I'm not an "expert" in the subject of people in any sense of the word. There's still much more for me to learn, and there always will be. It seems like everyday I learn something new from God about people and the way to treat them. God is a relational being; and since we are created in the image of God, we are relational beings also. The saying goes that "no man is an island." That's absolutely true; we need other people. We cannot rely on ourselves in this life. We need relationships... good relationships. Inside our hearts, there's an emotional and spiritual hole that can only be filled by having relationships (most importantly by a relationship with God, which you will suffer spiritual and emotional death without.) Therefore, how to have good relationships is something that we all need to think about.

Because this important subject is so dear to me, I'm going to try writing a series of essays every so often called "Confessions Of A Social Bumpkin." In them, I'll show you some things God has taught me about people and how to interact with them with God's unconditional love in mind. I don't know if anything will come from writing these essays, but I hope that maybe you can find some deeper insight into being a good friend and conversationalist for God.

But first, let me share with you a story about St. Francis of Assisi that I think gives a good example about one of the fundamental rules of people: People want somebody to be interested in them; they want somebody to CARE.

St. Francis of Assisi was a monk who lived a very simple life during the Middle Ages. He spent his days serving the Lord by serving others, and giving whatever he had to the poor. St. Francis was also a very good people person, and had a way of making people feel like a million bucks when he was around them. There's a lot to be learned about how to treat others from his example. Here's an essay G.K. Chesterton wrote about his example:

---St. Francis of Assisi---
by G.K. Chesterton

I have said that St. Francis deliberately did not see the wood for the trees. It is even more true that he deliberately did not see the mob for the men. What distinguishes this very genuine democrat from any mere demagogue is that he never saw before him a many-headed beast. He only saw the image of God multiplied but never monotonous. To him, a man was always a man and did not disappear in a dense crowd any more than a desert. He honored all men; that is, he not only loved but respected them all. What gave him his extraordinary personal power was this; that from the Pope to the beggar, from the sultan of Syria in his pavilion to the ragged robbers crawling out of the wood, there was never a man who looked into those brown burning eyes without being certain that Francis Benardone was really interested in him; in his own inner individual life from the cradle to the grave; that he himself was being valued and taken seriously, and not merely added to the spoils of some social policy or the names in some clerical document. Now for this particular moral and religious idea there is no external expression except courtesy. Exhortation does not express it, for it is not mere abstract enthusiasm; beneficence does not express it, for it is not mere pity. It can only be conveyed by a certain grand manner which may be called good manners. We may say if we like that St. Francis, in the bare and barren simplicity of his life, had clung to one rag of luxury; the manners of a court. But whereas in a court there is one king and a hundred courtiers, in this story there was one courtier moving among a hundred kings. For he treated the whole mob of men as a mob of kings. And this was really and truly the only attitude that will appeal to that part of man to which he wished to appeal.


Take care...


I remain,

Your friend,

Aaron Morrison