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.  

   

Scripture:  But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:4-10