Reminder for all of us....it is easy to reach for the multitudes...easy to give to the poor, go out and worship as i do for many at churches and homes, go to a soup kitchen and feed the great numbers for Thanksgiving, assist at a food pantry....these are all good and holy things, but never should we do these things at the cost of ignoring our own who are in need. The elderly and disabled in our families, friends and neighborhoods are pushed aside and we think a visit 3 times a year (if that much) satisfies. Oh the loneliness and sorrow of those confined to home and we neglect them. Not even calls in good and holy circles of families and friends to these, the least! They often will say, people wait for when i will die to show up and then it is too late.
And beyond this small category is everyone else...in every choir or group i have ever served there is brokenness in each and every member..They all come to confide in me asking for help and counsel..illness, PTSD, loneliness and isolation for those who are different, parents with ill and disabled children, the widow, the single parent, the caretakers, the one who is great at everything and expected to be super person , the mentally ill, the list goes on and on. Everyone is hurting and there are many opportunities in our circles, family, friends and neighbors where we find those in need of a hug and our time. People in need of our creativity in how we can spend time with them and bring joy sometimes in the silliest of ways.
This season, rather every day of our lives, let us remember the least in our circle of family and friends, in our tribe. How easy it is to make a call in 2016 with cell phones and yet there is more separation today than many years ago. i grew up in a home where we visited my grandma daily. As we got older we contacted her on our own and visited constantly because that is what our parents taught us to do. That way of life is gone. How cautious we parents must be in how we reach for our own elders because we will shortly be in their position and sadly our children will do to us as they saw we did to our own.
6:30 pm the other night i took a walk on a main street. There was an elderly woman walking with bags too heavy for her severely arthritic hands and limited strength. She would walk a few steps and have to stop. She was well dressed and beautiful but she was struggling. No one offered to help her as many young ones passed her by. i was ministering on the phone to someone and told them i would call back because i had something important to do. i thought for sure she would not accept my help because that often happens for people are afraid today to be vulnerable and let someone help them because our world is often unsafe. But to my great surprise she said yes. The bags were so heavy my arms still hurt days later. i offered my arm for her to hold because she needed the support to be able to walk. We shared as we walked to her home 2-3 blocks away. She said no one ever has helped her before. We talked about the real Love of God and how we all are related, brother and sisters in Christ. i got her to her home safe and we parted after she invited me back for coffee someday. i left different. It is funny how God works. We give and He then gives to us treasures not measured by anything in this world. The next day when i was with my Mom we were close to this woman's home. i told my Mom the story and she reminded me about her shopping cart. My Mom always called her large shopping cart her Cadillac since she never drove. She used it always for all of the years she was able to get out and shop by herself and that was well into her 80s. i never thought of this idea, and so i listened to what Mom said. i stopped by to visit this lady and found out she had two big carts that were too heavy and bulky for her to handle, so i went and bought her a light small red shopping cart. Oh how she loved it especially the color. She invited me in to see her lovely decorated home sadly filled with the smell of urine. i then found out she nurses her disabled daughter still who gets picked up and brought back from care daily. She lost her husband many years ago. i met Jesus in her and i received much more than she did in our encounter.
i have a purpose in telling you this story. Stories like this are ordinary in my life and i am not looking for medals for doing what Our Lord inspires me to do. i am telling you this because as a strong woman who is alone who cares for a disabled son and elderly mother and is in ministry full time reaching to many often on a one to one basis daily, i am tired and weary at times like everyone else. Very rarely does anyone ask how i am or offer me a cup of coffee. But you see in my sorrow, pain, joys, elation, in all the different places i can be on a daily basis good or bad, i continue to give and bring Jesus to others as i am called because when no one asks me how i am or serves me offering a hand of help, Jesus then comes and ministers to me Himself as i reach for the least. Imagine, i am so very rich, not monetarily but in things beyond our comprehension when i give from my lack. And so, do not wait until things look perfect or you are stronger, or when things are better. If God inspires you to do something beautiful for another, do it with all your heart and do it Now and what you will get in return will be extraordinary from His Own Hands!
Please know i am praying for you....remember your value as a daughter or son of God....chase Him and as a great Catholic Author from dynamiccatholic.com i met early in his career Matthew Kelly states, "become the very best version of yourself!" Be different...be kind....be extraordinarily loving....be holy and follow the promptings of the Living God. As each of us goes higher, the world becomes more and more the place He created it to be. til next time my friends....let's meditate on this Scripture verse Luke 6:38 and apply it to our lives:
"Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.”
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