Yesterday evening a dear friend met me for dinner.
I knew why they wanted to meet. I was unsure if they would follow thru. Not because I doubted their character but because the gift they wanted to give me was sacrificial. The type of gift that is humbling to receive.
We shared about life and our walk with the Lord.
Then they pulled out a check and moved it across the table. I started choking up. They asked, “this helps doesn’t it?”
My jaw started to shake. I looked up and made eye contact, breathed, and said, “yes, yes it does”.
Once in a great while, I’ve experienced things that move me and shake my being with thankfulness. This week, like an unforeseen anomaly, I’ve had two experiences that have done just that.
I don’t always feel supported. In fact, sometimes it feels quite rare. I know a lot of people. Yet I often don’t feel like I’m known by them.
The second experience is when I met someone who is very successful in the trade I want to move into. They shared their life story, I responded with mine. The two of us looked at each other with shock as if we were talking to a mirror. Numerous synonymous experiences, values, interests and heartaches.
I felt so understood by someone who I’ve met twice now. Yet I feel like they know me more than most people who have known me for years. This experience also made me breakdown… and tell the Lord “Thank you…”
With each act of kindness, we give… we rarely understand how the person will respond or be affected. Some people don’t cry or express their emotion. Some have forgotten how to feel and have gone emotionally numb as a survival mechanism.
One of my favorite quotes is as follows:
“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about.” – Wendy Mass
Are you aware of the person next to you… do you know how they are doing? How can you show kindness to them today?