Reaching
Out to Others
Kindness has converted more sinners than
zeal, eloquence, or learning. Frederick
W. Faber
Want to snatch a day from the manacles of
boredom? Do overgenerous deeds, acts beyond reimbursement. Kindness without
compensation. Do a deed for which you cannot be repaid. Max Lucado
Sometimes reaching others for Christ is not
easy. The people who are the hardest to
reach are those who had someone in their lifetime who told them they weren’t
good enough, or others who preached to them instead of loving them and guiding
them.
Since I was an introvert and shy in my early
years of life, I always thought I would never be able to talk to others about
God and how amazing He is. The older I
get the easier it is for me to talk to him. Maybe because the older I get the
more I place my trust in Him and not the people around me. What has helped over
the years is kindness. It is extremely
hard for someone to reject you when you are kind. That is not to say that some won’t reject you
anyway, but the beauty of God is that He won’t reject you. There is peace in knowing that. The other thing that helps is loving others
just the way they are.
Last week there were hundreds of workers from
different companies at the event we attended.
Some worked security, others set up displays, many picked up trash or
directed traffic throughout the week.
There were hundreds of vendors and the one thing I noticed most often
was the times that many of the vendors either yelled at the guys in the parking
lot or just ignored them altogether. The
same thing happened with the workers who picked up the vendors trash.
I wonder how we would feel if God ignored
us. How would we feel if He didn’t give
us the opportunity to redeem our sinful selves?
Throughout the week my sister and I took
every opportunity to be kind to the workers at the event. We brought coffee to the ones standing out in
the cold every day directing traffic. I
met and talked every day to the security guard where our trailer was
parked. He was out there 12 hours a day
until the event closed. I asked him if
there was anything I could bring him to drink.
He said “a water would be nice”. It
cost me time and effort to walk back to my booth and get water and then walk
back across the convention center to bring it to him. What did I get out of it? Joy.
The simple joy of seeing someone’s face light up because I did something
kind and thoughtful to one of God’s children.
What else did I get? At the end of this event there is utter chaos
with everyone trying to get booths broken down, forklifts hauling product and
all the other things that go with breaking down a 400 vendor event. I was walking back to our booth from our
trailer when I remembered I had forgotten to get something from the
trailer. I turned around to go back and
the security guard had come back to see us and tell us goodbye and to have a
safe trip home. That evening he had been
working security over at Reliant Stadium and he walked all the way over across
this huge parking lot to our building just to tell us goodbye. The joy I felt in having touched his life in
some small way was priceless.
Take the time to extend kindness to someone
else. Jesus did it throughout his
lifetime on earth. Follow in His
footsteps. He died so that we can
live. Show someone else this amazing
gift by your actions through kindness and generosity.
Prayer for the Day:
Heavenly Father, I was so blessed by the people I met at last week’s
event. I understand what it means to be
joyful by helping others. I want to
reflect You in everything I do. Help me
to see others as You do. Help me to slow
down and take the time to be kind and generous to others. I praise You for giving me a heart for giving
to others. It brings me great joy.
No comments:
Post a Comment