Boardshorts and Sandals — Revealing How You See Others
Boardshorts and Sandals — Revealing How You See Others
Over the last few weeks I've met a run of new people — mostly business owners, mostly strangers who only know me from social media or the website. And I noticed something. With some, there's instant honour. The conversation flows, the prophetic draws out of me easily, there's a synergy that's genuinely a joy. With others, I've got to prove myself first. Fair enough — they don't know me, they've got no reason to trust me yet. But it's harder work.
Sitting with that difference took me back to a verse I've read a hundred times without really sitting with it: Matthew 10:41. He that receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward. What actually is a prophet's reward?
Honour Is Impartation
Here's what I believe it comes down to. When you honour someone — see them the way God sees them, not how they present or perform — you partner with their breakthrough. You receive what they carry. Bill Johnson puts it well: honour is seeing people for who they are, without tripping over who they're not.
Most of the time we do the opposite. We come in with bias, sizing people up by the outward before we've had a real conversation.
Samuel, David, and the Outward Appearance Problem
This isn't a new issue. God pulled Samuel up on exactly this when he went to anoint the next king of Israel. Samuel gets to Jesse's most impressive-looking son and assumes that's the one. God stops him: Man looks at the outward appearance, but I look at the heart. David — the one nobody thought to call in — gets chosen. Not for how he looked. For his heart.
Board Shorts, Sandals, and Cairns Logic
I see this constantly living in Cairns. It's tropical, it's hot year-round, and a suit and tie just doesn't happen here the way it might in a major city. You learn fast not to assume someone in board shorts and sandals is unserious or insignificant. My own accountant refuses to wear long pants — turns up to the most important meetings in shorts and sandals — and he's one of the most brilliant, influential people in the industry. You cannot judge by the wrapping.
Permission to Be Hopeless
Wendy Backlund once struggled with this in counselling — feeling like nothing ever changed in the people she walked with. She took it to God, frustrated. His answer has stuck with me: Wendy, you have permission to be hopeless about anyone that I am hopeless about. Which means — never. Because God is hope.
Right Believing, Not Just Right Doing
So here's the application. There are people I'm choosing to believe for right now, before they believe it themselves — speaking over them how God sees them. Higher. Greater. An overcomer. The head and not the tail. It's the mechanic underneath discipleship, underneath raising kids, underneath leading staff and walking with clients. The Kingdom advances through right believing, not right doing. The actions still matter — but they flow out of what you actually believe first.
Where are you carrying hopelessness toward someone right now? Ask God to show you who they really are.
🎧 Listen to the full episode, Boardshorts and Sandals — Revealing How You See Others, here
