Day 2 of my week challenge! Buckle your seatbelts!
Alright. This post may at first make me "creeper status", but allow me to explain. It is said that the average person spends such-and-such amount of time sitting at stoplights. Though I do not know this exact amount of time, I would suspect it to be quite a lot. I personally use this time to watch people in the opposite turn lane, perhaps you have done the same. I love to watch people in their cars as they drive passed me. I am always overwhelmed by how many people I feel like I have never seen. I ponder them, sitting there at that obnoxious red light teasing me. I wonder who they are. What is their family like? Where are they going? Who are the people they love the most? What do they believe about life and what caused them to think that way? What have the seen, who have they talked to, and what experiences have shaped their world-view in the time they have tread this green earth?
It is just so crazy to me that I can live in the same town with so many people and only come to know a select few. There have been so many times I have been doing this, and end up getting honked at by the row of cars behind me as the light has been green for almost 3 of their precious seconds. Yet I wouldn't trade this time for the world. Why? I suppose it is because I know that it affects me in a way I find difficult to construct into sentences and words. It helps me to expand my vision, open wide my often blinded eyes, and actually recognize how many people live day by day without the Lord. It helps me to remember the tremendous worth of the human soul that so often gets brushed aside with my busy schedule. It keeps me from forgetting that I and my circle are not the only people alive, but that there are so many opportunities around us. Every person we encounter every day has a story. You never know just who may be on the edge of breaking. Who's loved one just passed away. Who doesn't know how the rent will get paid. Who is afraid that their parents won't stay together. It could be your barista, the lady sitting at table 10, the old man staring into the distance, the young mom trying to control crying children. There are constantly people all around us, but do we take the time to lift our eyes and look?Are we staring at the red lights in life, that make us impatiently wait, or do we look at the waiting as the opportunity to make an impact? Take the time to take your eyes off the blockade that may be in front of you, and lift your eyes to see the world around you. You may be surprised how God can use you when you do. It may even surprise you further how quickly that red light in your life changes to green.
