Today's snapshot is really a summary of what I learned as I reflected on my interactions with the jogger and the beggar.
Those experiences created a new image -- a third snapshot, if you will-- that I hope to hold on to.
And because it's of a nature more mystical than physical, I've felt compelled to write it with words that read more like a poem than a story (which, FYI is very, very "out of my comfort zone" as they say, but I feel compelled to share it all the same. And trust me... at this point I realize I very well may be crazy. Especially because I have friends who are poets. Really good poets. I am not a poet. I'm not even sure this is poetry. But let's just pretend it is, OK? Because I hope that regardless of what it is, the message rings true for someone [other than just me]).
Snapshot #3: The Transformation
On the first day:
In the moment of the fall, I offered to help and God was loving me.
I loved myself in that moment, too.
In the moment of the need to comfort and cleanse, I was there to help.
I offered help when I was able.
In the moment of a change of heart, I was allowed to help.
I witnessed the grace and courage it takes to allow someone to help.
On the second day:
In that moment, even as I said, "Sorry, no," God was loving me.
I must love myself in that moment, too.
In that moment, I let my worry and my judgment determine whether or not someone else needed what I had.
I must not let Doubt make my decisions in the future.
In that moment, of my saying "no" I was given the gift of being told, "That's all right." And the blessing to "have a great day."
I must accept that gift and remember the willingness
to be forgiving and kind in the face of rejection.
And so:
From this day forward, when I think of the jogger, I will remember:
I AM called to be the hands of Christ to those in need,
and to let others be Christ's hands for me.
and to let others be Christ's hands for me.
From this day forward when I think of the beggar's outstretched arm with his bucket of coins, I will remember:
I AM called to discern my ability to help others from my willingness to help them.
From this day forward, I will remember that when the day began with my thoughts focused on an empty reflecting pool outside an old memorial:
I AM called to be a reflecting pool of the Living Water.
I frame that snapshot with these words:
In this moment,
I will pick up my Cross.
And in that moment,
I will remember.
That from this day forward,
I AM carries me.
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