It is way past late night television and I cannot sleep. Everyone is pretty much off to dream land in my house and I am wide awake with racing thoughts. On the way home last night Skye (my 6 yr old daughter) starts to ask..out of the blue.. where do people go if they have no home. I started to do the whole "simple 6 year old style" answer "well, honey they find shelter wherever they can". She was quiet for a few minutes. I am thinking I have answered her question. She then says, "mommy, what do they eat?" I answer again in simplest terms that they find food wherever they can. Skye is quiet for almost 10 minutes and then I begin to hear her cry. I turn around, "What is wrong baby?" I ask. "Well, I think WE should let them live with us and cook them food." I was taken aback. I mean, in the simplest of terms through the eyes and heart of a child she had just spoken the pure words of what we really are supposed to do. My mind is just thinking of ways to explain to her that we cannot do that, we do not know these people.. they could be dangerous.. they could not want our help.. they could... well, you get the picture.
Everyone is tucked in and goodnights are said. I watch my weekly crack addiction of LOST then pick up my book to read before dosing off.. i thought. In the middle of a paragraph my mind is overtaken with my daughters question. You see, I spent almost 3 months of my life homeless. In the middle of winter in Detroit. So, I UNDERSTOOD the need. I knew all too well the loneliness, hunger and exhaustion you feel when you are in that situation. All of a sudden my mind was overtaken with images of those days. I closed my book and went over to the music room.. maybe I could clear my head and go to bed if I just play for a while. But even the piano did not calm my mind.
So, here I sat insomniac with a racing mind and a heavy heart. I WANT to do what she said.. let people into my home, feed them... clothe them. When in the HECK did I get so jaded? When did seeing the world though the needs of others leave me and instead sit a woman who was so caught up in her bubble wrap that she could not even see correctly. Have you ever tried to look through a sheet of bubble wrap? Well, I have.. I held it up one time to the light and it distorts your vision. you really can't see anything but shapes.. sort of. Well, here I am living and viewing the world through my own personal bubble wrap. People are shapes. Their needs just shadows of shapes. Somewhere after 2:30 I drift off and fall asleep. But this morning my mind is still fixed on my daughters words. So, I am making a change. A DRASTIC change.. I am going to start LIVING my life LOOKING.. actively LOOKING for ways to serve and help others. I do not know how but I am going to not turn a blind eye to people who are in need.. I am no longer going to just see shapes.. I want to see PEOPLES.. I want to walk in their shoes.. I want to BE Jesus to them. I want to maybe in some small way be an answer to a prayer an answer to a need.
So, I DARE you to do the same.. LIVE your life in someone else's shoes today... feel what they feel and ACT accordingly to their need. i DARE you.
H
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