Snapshots From My Journey - #3 The Transformation

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.

 

 

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.