I think that too many times we keep our mouths shut when something needs to be said. I don't mean criticizing or laying into people when you are upset. I mean caring enough to say something to let them know that they are loved and important.
I think that in life we put up too many walls and isolate ourselves from others. Maybe its a defense mechanism. Maybe its fear...but we are all here trying to make sense out of life and figure it out. There is no manual, no directions.
We have to stop thinking about ourselves and think about others...effect change.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Sunday, June 1, 2008
There Are People...
I was on my way to the airport today. I purchased a sandwich the night before and kept it in the refrigerator for my trip down. When I began traveling I wasn’t that hungry and I had let the sandwich sit for quite a while in the seat next to me. Well, about two hours into the trip I decided I was hungry and I opened up the sandwich and took a couple bites. It wasn’t the most appetizing thing, the lettuce had begun to wilt, the meat was warmish and I decided that I wasn’t really that hungry and placed the sandwich back in its bag and left it on the seat.
As, I got closer the airport I realized that I needed to fill the gas tank in my rental to avoid paying for the rental agency to fill it up. I stopped at a gas station and began to fill up the tank. I stood filling my tank and a man came walking into the station with a garbage bag. He rummaged through the garbage cans pulling out recyclable containers. I thought I would be charitable and reached into my car and pulled out a plastic container for the vitamin water I drank on the way to the airport and offered it to the man. While grabbing my bottle, I saw the sandwich and a couple other things and decided I would throw those away. So I tossed them into the garbage can. The man continued around the gas station, stopping across from me. When he set his bag down to check his next can, I couldn’t believe my eyes, I saw there among the discarded bottles and cans, the sandwich I had just thrown away.
Now, before anyone ruins my story by jumping down the wrong path, I want to let you know how ashamed I felt at that moment. It was the epitome of the line parents give to children, who don’t eat their vegetables, “you better eat those, don’t you know there are people starving, that would love to have that?” I didn’t even think to offer the man my sandwich. I didn’t eat it because, it wasn’t to my liking. I was wasteful instead. Yet, this man had the humility to take what he could get.
I wonder if we are truly grateful, for what the Lord blesses us with. Are we really grateful for every meal we get. How often do we pray before a meal and then complain during or after that there was something wrong with it.? I know that I am guilty of it, more frequently than I would like to admit. But, I never really considered it. I have to say that I was really struck by the situation today.
I think that I need to live a less decadent life, I think that I shouldn’t be so wasteful and that I should learn what being grateful really means.
As, I got closer the airport I realized that I needed to fill the gas tank in my rental to avoid paying for the rental agency to fill it up. I stopped at a gas station and began to fill up the tank. I stood filling my tank and a man came walking into the station with a garbage bag. He rummaged through the garbage cans pulling out recyclable containers. I thought I would be charitable and reached into my car and pulled out a plastic container for the vitamin water I drank on the way to the airport and offered it to the man. While grabbing my bottle, I saw the sandwich and a couple other things and decided I would throw those away. So I tossed them into the garbage can. The man continued around the gas station, stopping across from me. When he set his bag down to check his next can, I couldn’t believe my eyes, I saw there among the discarded bottles and cans, the sandwich I had just thrown away.
Now, before anyone ruins my story by jumping down the wrong path, I want to let you know how ashamed I felt at that moment. It was the epitome of the line parents give to children, who don’t eat their vegetables, “you better eat those, don’t you know there are people starving, that would love to have that?” I didn’t even think to offer the man my sandwich. I didn’t eat it because, it wasn’t to my liking. I was wasteful instead. Yet, this man had the humility to take what he could get.
I wonder if we are truly grateful, for what the Lord blesses us with. Are we really grateful for every meal we get. How often do we pray before a meal and then complain during or after that there was something wrong with it.? I know that I am guilty of it, more frequently than I would like to admit. But, I never really considered it. I have to say that I was really struck by the situation today.
I think that I need to live a less decadent life, I think that I shouldn’t be so wasteful and that I should learn what being grateful really means.
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