I've always wanted to be someone. A musician, famous actor, anything like that would be nice ya know? Lately I began to realize why...I want to help people, to encourage them to give them hope that despite whatever they encouter they remain positive and look for the good.
Right now I don't really feel that way. At times I feel like a nobody, or that I'm going nowhere and stuck at a dead end. Yet despite these feelings I know deep down inside that I'm not just a nobody. I have a job, even though it may be a poor paying and depressing place to work, its still a job that I should work my fullest to. I have a fantastic girlfriend! and while I don't have the job to start a family I know she'll wait a long time for me. I play on the worship team at church, and I've started going to college again. Right now it seems rough and hard to see further down the road but I know I can get there if I try.
As fa as helping people goes, yea sure I may not be making the impact I would like to or eventually hope to reach, but I am still reaching people. Playing in the worship team for one is a prime example, while I am just playing and it is really God doing the work, it is still a ministry, its reaching out to help people in the place God wants me to be at right now. Theres even little things I can do to help others, while I'd love to go down and help those in disasters like Haiti right now, I can donate something, anything really to help them out. I worked at a homeless shelter on Christmas, Rang the Salvation Army bell, and even gave some lady (who seemed a little impatient) my free ice cream I get from work.
I'm not pointing these out to brag or anything, I'm telling them to help me and even others realize that although we may not be able to help others in the way we would like to there are still plenty of other ways to help out the people around you, and eventually even those your trying to reach.
God has a plan for everything and He has a reason that were at the place where we are at, even if we did guide ourselves to such a place. Sometimes it might be to help a friend along the way, or maybe its to deal with an attitude or lack of motivation you have. Maybe its to reach out to one single person because at that exact moment they need the exact encouragement that only you can give them. So often we focus on helping those after the disaster, but how many of us focus on before the disaster, or even what happened during, or how people responded after the disaster? While there are so many stories of the disaster and the destruction, (which isn't bad) there often aren't a lot of stories on the amazing things that kept people alive, or how despite the destruction in Haiti there were people praising God and singing to Him on the streets in the very midst of that.
There are so many ways to help fellow humans out there, and I think its closer to us than we may think! We just have to start looking for the little things. On one of the old morning shows on Air 1 radio, the hosts created a thing called "Make a Difference Monday" and people would just call in to them saying how they did a simple thing to touch the life of some random person they didn't even know. Being polite and patient to the cashier, paying for the persons meal behind you at the drive thru, all these types of things.Maybe it should just be "Make a Difference" an every day process, where we find ourselves going the extra distance for everyone we meet, even the person yelling at you in the car next to you!
