FOODFORTHOUGHT

Dear Lord,

Thank you that tonight my heart is light. Like something newly
freed. For I have discovered how to heal it of an unexpected wound;
one of those slight, seemingly small rebuffs or humiliations or blows
that ought not to hurt so much, but for some of us who are unduly
sensitive maybe, they do: A bawling out from the boss. A scolding
from someone dear. A sharp word from a friend. Even rudeness from a
stranger.

Such things can strike the sunshine from the day. The spirit
winces, beats a quick retreat. We feel our wet eyes sting. Then pride
urges retaliation. Sometimes we want to turn on somebody else, as if
to pass the pain along. Only now, Lord, I know the true way to relief
is to cancel out the pain by doing something kind.

Thank you that today, still seething and suffering, I found
myself seated on a bus beside a small shabby man. And I realized, as
he stared fixedly out the window, that he was struggling not to cry.
And my own little hurt seemed to shrink before the enormity of his. I
knew I must speak to him -- and did.

And he turned to me, Lord, and drew from his threadbare wallet
a picture of a bright-eyed little girl, six years old. "We lost her
yesterday," he said. He was going now to pick out flowers. He wanted
to talk about it. He was glad somebody cared. In our few blocks' ride
across the city we shared it -- his pride in her and his great loss.
And we
touched upon the mystery of being born at all, of being parents, of
the brevity and beauty of life upon this earth. And when we parted,
he was actually smiling. "You've made me feel so much better," he
said.

"You have made me feel so much better too," I told him. For my
own petty pain no longer mattered. It was as if some balance had been
struck between that which is hurtful and that which is healing.

And perhaps that is all that really matters. That the good, the
kind, the decent in this world can equal or even surpass the bad.
Thank you that I have learned this lesson, Lord. Next time it surely
won't be so hard to overcome an unexpected hurt.

PRAYER
Come, Holy Spirit, come!
Come as fire to warm us.
Come as wind to cleanse us.
Come as light to guide us.
Come as power to enable us.

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# posted by F O O D F O R T H O U G H T @ 5:06 AM 0 comments