I prayed a very simple prayer yesterday morning: “God, help me be friendly to someone who’s lonely.” I know God gives us opportunities to test our faith and to give Him glory…and usually, we mess those situations up horribly.
As I thought about it, I realized God wasn’t necessarily going to send me someone whom I wanted to be friendly to. Maybe that someone would be annoying or cold or a chatterbox. But I still had to do the right thing.
But then it was almost 5:00 PM, and I thought about how I hadn’t been friendly to anyone all day. I really messed up a perfect opportunity.
A girl was sitting all alone at a table this morning.
And I took a chair from her table to sit with my friends.
How pathetic I am.
I looked back at the opportunities God had given me to be kind to the lonely…and I was selfish. I hung out with my friends. I only thought about myself.
How many times has this happened to you—when you realized that you were completely self-centered and neglected every opportunity to reach out to others?
Saying “Hi” to someone who’s lonely could make a bigger difference than you could ever imagine.
We have to set our minds to remember that those shy kids who always sit by themselves at school or in church have feelings. We just ignore them and brush them aside in our minds. But those are the kids who cut themselves, criticize themselves, and think about committing suicide.
I watched a really good movie last week called To Save a Life. It made me realize that the kids who get put down and left out are the ones struggling to find meaning in life.
I’m not nearly as friendly or kind or loving as I should be. I need to step out and stop thinking about myself for more than 30 seconds each day. Because someone out there is hurting, and someone out there is thinking about committing suicide or inflicting pain upon themselves.
This post isn’t meant to make you feel guilty for the times you’ve messed up. I’m writing this so that we’ll try harder tomorrow. You have no idea how big your impact could be.
Let’s get outside of ourselves long enough to see the pain in the world’s eyes. They need to see Jesus, and they’re not going to see Him through anyone else. Pray for opportunities and then take them. This is your chance!
So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. (Galatians 6:10 ESV)
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