As I listen to the “stories” of hurt, pain and struggles among the “masses”, the person next door or in the line in front of you at the grocery store, my heart breaks and one can only wonder what that person passing you by on the street is actually dealing with. Under the mask of a smile, a grumble, a blank look often lies heartache filled with hurt, pain, guilt and shame. These are just a few of what we are all “hiding” beneath the surface that often manifest through anger, hatefulness and the appearance of being “in your own little world” completely oblivious to others around them. So, I ask myself, are they really that mean, hateful and self-centered? Do they have feelings of “entitlement” because of what they have been through or accomplished? Are they even aware of anything outside of their own feelings they are dealing with? The old adage of “Don’t judge a book by it’s over”, I believe can be very accurately applied to each one of this on the planet.
Have we gotten so far away from the days and time when people really took time to care about others? To realize that the way out of our own hurt and pain is to reach out to someone else who is hurting and dealing with struggles that feel overwhelming to them?
I am just as guilty as the next person, to get so involved in what is bother me, my struggles, hurt and pain that I forget to take time and see or hear what others are dealing with that might be far worse than I have ever encountered. I have been brought to my knees when God has sent someone across my path that I find has been through and often still going through something so heartbreaking there are no words – making my “issues” seem like a little bit of dust in the wind!
I am trying each and every day to ask God through the Holy Spirit to make me aware of what I need to do and be for someone else today. The other day, I was struggling to even function or deal with what I was facing that day and I stopped to get gas and something to drink. As I approached to pay for my drink – struggling to find change in my purse, a young man behind me told the cashier he’d get my drink along with his purchase. I had never seen him before and probably won’t ever cross paths with him again, but I can tell you that one simple act of kindness not only left me in tears of gratitude but it helped me beyond what words could every express. The thought that someone cared with such a simple act of kindness and was more concerned with someone else than his own irritation that I was “taking too long” to come up with the rest of the money to pay for my purchase. That one simple gesture changed the course of the rest of my day – I felt so loved by God that he let my path cross with a truly caring individual and uplifted that there were still people who “cared”.
That has stuck with me so intensely that it reminded me to go back to where “I used to live” and want to live again. I want to be that person that brings a smile, a ray of hope, a gesture of God’s love and caring for them. I want to remember everyday that no matter what it looks like on the outside or feels like on the inside – that my God is there, always working in the background. I want to see the goodness in others around me and in the world with all its negativity looming around us. I want to be that “change I want to see” and start, as Michael Jackson sang, “with the man in the mirror”. I want to know that taking time to actually “see” that person passing by me, working hard wherever I need to go, or the one I unexpectedly encounter in my everyday journeys, could make a small difference that would only take me one minute to smile and say hello, maybe even asking how they’re doing (and mean it!). And as I pass by and pick up on their pain, remember to send a prayer asking that God be with them and bless them in a special way today, to help them with their struggles and reward them for their kindness.
Blessings as you work through how you see the word and hopefully can find all the beauty hidden within as well as all around us. And to enact the phrase I’ve seen in several places, “to commit random acts of kindness!”
