My friend and I regularly walk together. We do a minimum of three laps around our neighborhood. My friend always picks up things on the path that shouldn’t be there: nails, plastic bags, empty soda cans, candy wrappers etc. Sometimes these things will be way off the road, and she’ll go out of her way to pick it up. She carries it with her until we get to her house where she can dump it in her trash can. I walk alongside her, but I hardly ever notice these items on the ground until she bends over to pick them up. Why?
If these same items were in my house or in my yard, I think I would notice them. If there were a nail in my driveway, I think it would register in my brain that I needed to pick it up before I drove over it and got a flat tire. Somehow, I’ve learned to tune out problems in this world that don’t directly affect me.
It’s easy to get distracted. There are deadlines at work; our own kids have projects due at school; we have family emergencies; we have our own bills to pay, meals to cook, and homes to clean. We also need time to enjoy life, so we take time to plan parties, go on vacation, and go shopping.
It’s so easy to get absorbed in my own life, that I fail to notice the struggles of others. Until the Holy Spirit nudges me. He bends down to take care of something, and then I notice…
I notice the children that need help staying afloat in school. I notice the cleaning woman at the hospital and how tired she looks. I notice the Hispanic woman who serves me at McDonalds and the Burmese immigrants at the meat packing plant, all trying to assimilate, all trying to take care of their children...
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