Just Do It!

It was late in the evening when I posted yesterday's blog. By morning, readers had already responded to the message. I concluded my writing with the encouragement, "God is with you." One reader recounted an experience that they had earlier in the day and how the promise of God's 'forever presence' was important for them. I pass on a portion of their writing to you,

As I started to back my car down my driveway I saw there was a man not far away from me laying on the ground. Three people were with him and they all looked panicked. I contemplated just going on to the grocery store. Instead, I got out and went to see what I could do. (Come to find out, he was a fifteen year old kid who had fallen off the back of a pickup truck. He was only going a short distance, to the pool.) He was bleeding badly from his head, and was in and out of consciousness. I stayed with him and his friends until help came-- I hope I never have to experience that again. I wonder if that kid is okay. Oh God, please be with him and his family tonight. Why did I stop to help? Did I truly care about him? Or maybe I’m just selfish and wanted to be a hero. These were my thoughts tonight when I read your blog and watched the video you included. At the very end of the video there was a message I so desperately needed to hear tonight.

One thing I was struck by in this person's experience was that they were just "on their way" to run an errand. Second, that the injured boy in a similar way was "only going a short distance from his house" when the unexpected happened to him. Life has a way of happening to us when we least expect it. Times of unplanned and unforeseen events take us to unexpected places. These experiences nearly always teach us invaluable lessons about ourselves. Life's unpleasantries can be mirrors that allow us to see ourselves for who we really are. Or, as someone once said, "Integrity is who you are when no one is looking."

In one of my daily readings for today I read, "Jesus does not ask me to die for Him, but to lay down my life for Him...it is much easier to die than to lay my life down my life day in and day out." When we lay our life down for others, give up control, get involved in our communities we, "come to know love (in a new way)and practice what our Lord practiced...laying down our lives for others"(1 Jn. 3.16). When we give up our selfish priorities and seek to help in any need, great or small, we show the world that God is truly a prioritity in our lives. There is much preaching and slick religious self promoting today. I have always liked what Pascal said when he wrote, "Preach whenever you can and if necessary, use words." The world and a growing number of people in churches today are seeking an authentic and transparent experience with God. The world would rather see a sermon than hear one. The world does not need another Messiah. God is only asking that the Messiah's true friends do what the reader in the above did.

So, next time you feel as though you are being interrupted...the next time you are put out because the line at the grocery store is longer than your patience...the next time you can't find a parking place closer than what is convienent (poor baby)...the next time you have an opportunity to help someone ESPECIALLY when it does not fit your timetable...JUST DO IT and when you do, you just might fnd God showing up in a way that you would have never expected. Oh yeah, my annonymous reader, thanks for being a hero, to me.....