I get this way sometimes, caught up in my own virtue and thinking that I do everything I can to make the world a better place. Then boys in blue hoodies point out that maybe I really don't do anything at all, and it really makes me think.... do I?
I'm sitting in London's drinking some PBR, and in walks a woman quite familiar to the local area. She often walks into random places and asks strangers for rides. She stayed there a long time... a couple of hours. I decided I was ready to leave, and like a radar zoning in on a target, she somehow magically appeared right beside me....and asked me to take her home.
Of course I said yes with a happy, smiling face....but inside I could feel Vesuvius was beginning to show signs of awakening. I felt unhappy, uncomfortable, and inconvenienced...yet there she was chattering away...
Then... somewhere between the gas station and Bob's Foodland (Which is not quite the Land of Food it claims to be) I felt some shift in the cosmos... like I passed through a wardrobe to the Narnia of God's understanding, and I was instantaneously enlightened. The speed of the shift in my heart is almost inexplicable because it was so fast and unexpected.
I became overwhelmingly thankful for my life. Amazed that I am who I am, and I was chosen to live the life that I lead. I felt like I was spiritually kneeling at this woman's feet, washing them, and drying them with my soul.
Which, anyone who knows me knows that I hate feet, and I don't want to ever, ever touch them unless I can look at them without being disgusted... which is rare. So, the fact that I actually am comparing it to washing feet... shows what an impact this made on me...
After that, the smile on my face wasn't forced and the conversation wasn't painful. So, I dropped her off, and felt warm in my heart.
And so, to all darling, loved, argumentative boys in blue hoodies I would like to say..... it's not the value you place on other people that makes your life meaningful. It's the value they place on you. Like our gold conversation: if it is not valued among a society, it's worthless. Maybe I'm not a member of the underground church, maybe I am not saving people in the Sudan, and maybe I am not saving all the animals in every animal shelter.... but
I know that I am not perfect. I don't even always do the best I can. I am selfish. Sometimes I feel life isn't worth it. Sometimes I am not really listening.... and sometimes I fail....
but this has always been my vision:
The Sovereign LORD has given me an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught. The Sovereign LORD has opened my ears, and I have not been rebellious; I have not drawn back.
and I may not always run a solid race to that goal, sometimes I am a sprinter... heck, sometimes I am a bench warmer... but I think the times I aspire to it count for something.
It's not about doing everything... because for me, it's been a long, hard road to balance and learning that I CAN'T do everything, but it's about doing something.
Keep in mind:
Lucy: You give up your seat every day in the train.
Peter: Well... But that's not heroic.
Lucy: It is to the person who sits in it.
"If you don't like the way the world is, you change it. You have an obligation to change it. You just do it one step at a time."
I'm sitting in London's drinking some PBR, and in walks a woman quite familiar to the local area. She often walks into random places and asks strangers for rides. She stayed there a long time... a couple of hours. I decided I was ready to leave, and like a radar zoning in on a target, she somehow magically appeared right beside me....and asked me to take her home.
Of course I said yes with a happy, smiling face....but inside I could feel Vesuvius was beginning to show signs of awakening. I felt unhappy, uncomfortable, and inconvenienced...yet there she was chattering away...
Then... somewhere between the gas station and Bob's Foodland (Which is not quite the Land of Food it claims to be) I felt some shift in the cosmos... like I passed through a wardrobe to the Narnia of God's understanding, and I was instantaneously enlightened. The speed of the shift in my heart is almost inexplicable because it was so fast and unexpected.
I became overwhelmingly thankful for my life. Amazed that I am who I am, and I was chosen to live the life that I lead. I felt like I was spiritually kneeling at this woman's feet, washing them, and drying them with my soul.
Which, anyone who knows me knows that I hate feet, and I don't want to ever, ever touch them unless I can look at them without being disgusted... which is rare. So, the fact that I actually am comparing it to washing feet... shows what an impact this made on me...
After that, the smile on my face wasn't forced and the conversation wasn't painful. So, I dropped her off, and felt warm in my heart.
And so, to all darling, loved, argumentative boys in blue hoodies I would like to say..... it's not the value you place on other people that makes your life meaningful. It's the value they place on you. Like our gold conversation: if it is not valued among a society, it's worthless. Maybe I'm not a member of the underground church, maybe I am not saving people in the Sudan, and maybe I am not saving all the animals in every animal shelter.... but
I know that I am not perfect. I don't even always do the best I can. I am selfish. Sometimes I feel life isn't worth it. Sometimes I am not really listening.... and sometimes I fail....
but this has always been my vision:
The Sovereign LORD has given me an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught. The Sovereign LORD has opened my ears, and I have not been rebellious; I have not drawn back.
and I may not always run a solid race to that goal, sometimes I am a sprinter... heck, sometimes I am a bench warmer... but I think the times I aspire to it count for something.
It's not about doing everything... because for me, it's been a long, hard road to balance and learning that I CAN'T do everything, but it's about doing something.
Keep in mind:
Lucy: You give up your seat every day in the train.
Peter: Well... But that's not heroic.
Lucy: It is to the person who sits in it.
"Service is the rent we pay for being. It is the very purpose of life, and not something you do in your spare time."
"If you don't like the way the world is, you change it. You have an obligation to change it. You just do it one step at a time."
No comments:
Post a Comment