August 23, 2020
I have plenty of faults. Among them is my uncanny ability to notice things. Unfortunately, I usually notice them after I have walked right past them for a long time. For example, if one of you ladies gets a new hairdo and I notice it, I will ask, “Did you get a new haircut?” Quite often the reply is, “Yes…three weeks ago!” Or, we will be driving along and I tell Marie, “Oh, look, the new Subway is open” to which she will reply, “Honey, it’s been open for a couple of weeks now.” While you laugh at my shortcoming, I’ll bet the same thing happens to you at times. The problem is, we look without seeing. When I was in the restaurant business and we were about to have a corporate inspection, I would invite other managers into my store so they could point out things I might have missed because I “see them” and walk right past them every day. Looking without seeing is really easy to do because our lives and our minds are full and we usually have several things on our minds at once. Looking without seeing is for the most part harmless…until it isn’t. How many hurting people do we pass every day? We look at them, but many times we really don’t see them. Maybe it’s the girl at Hardees who rings up our sausage biscuit. Maybe it is the guy at Kroger who checks us out (I would have used Walmart instead of Kroger, but most of Walmart is self-checkout now…I DID notice that…but will save it for another time). Maybe it is our co-worker or our teacher or our kids or our spouse. The list is endless. We all hurt sometimes and some people hurt all the time it seems. Many times, we never see it and walk right on by. What if we slowed down our hectic pace? What if we took the time to talk with those people God puts in our path? Simple conversation only takes a moment of our time, but that moment may be a lifeline for someone who is hurting and desperately needing a listening ear, or a helping hand. We all need help sometimes and many of us, myself included, are often reluctant to admit it. Taking the time to listen is the right thing to do. Lending a helping hand is the neighborly thing to do and you know what? Listening to others and giving them a hand up when they need it is the JESUS thing to do.
Be blessed and be a blessing…Bro. Andy
