I received news yesterday that someone I attended college with took his own life. I saw him a short time ago in a store in Birmingham and we talked and exchanged some pleasantries. But I went no further than that.
Now I wonder, did I miss something? Should I have been more attentive not just to his words but to facial expressions, etc?
We see people everyday, we talk with them but we have our own agendas and our own lists of thing-to-do so we hurry along.
On the other side we let small things and even large things separate us from friends and even family members that really, we love.
Why not, today and everyday, look into the eyes of those you see and pray for them, and love them with the love of Jesus?
The next time you come up on someone you know, slow down and listen. You never know what another person is experiencing right then.
Gripped by Grace,
Hal
Posts
11 years ago
1 comment:
Bro. Hal,
I am sorry to hear about your friend.
I do wonder if by saying this to you it puts me in the same boat that you were actually in with your friend. I have wondered about this for a while now, do we actually grieve for others? C.S. Lewis wrote a book about this subject titled "A Grief Observed". It is about his sadness over the loss of his wife. In it he discusses how we see others and ask them how they are doing but we really don't grieve for them or with them, not really. It is only when we face the same kind of situation that we actually feel grief in our own lives. I suppose that this falls along the same lines with "Love your neighbor as yourself"? How can I actaully do that? I have thought and prayed alot about this and the only way I actually see this happening from experience and in scripture is when I allow God's Spirit to do what He wants in and through my life and truely remove myself (not often enough, I have to admit). I cannot do this alone and if I were to tell you the truth I actually don't even want to love others as myself, and I actually do not want to share anyone else's sadness. This is against my natural self and my natural desires thus I need His intervention. Perhaps God is using this situation to reveal yet another aspect of our uncleanliness and another aspect of our lives that we need to lay before Him? Thank you for sharing this situation and I pray that God will give us eyes to see others as He sees them and that He would give us a heart to share His grace when it is truely needed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OihvG607W-c
Matt
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