Missed Chances

As I write this I am on a flight to visit my sister in Scotland. I am lucky enough to be able to save enough to get a ticket this year and go meet my new little nephew in time for his first birthday. I am lucky. God has been good to me, even if I complain he likes my mother better. But not everyone has it good on this flight. There is a lady who has a broken foot, or at least very badly sprained, limping with a crutch. She sat across from us as we waited to board the plane.

I do not know her, nor her story, but I do know she is hurting. Red eyes and pain spread all across her face, and it didn't look like it was from the foot. I don't know if she lost someone, or ended a relation, or what, but i could see hurt. And like the fool I am, I looked at her, felt bad, but did not give any words of comfort, support, or anything. I didn't tell her of the comforts God wants to share with her. I didn't do anything even though I have a feeling God wanted me to.

Like many people, I feel uncomfortable approaching strangers. I don't know how to start off, what to say if I manage a greeting, or how to tell her God loves her and cares deeply for her. That he now mourns with her pain. I think we often don't know how to talk about God. It's not that we don't know things to share, I think it has to do with feeling afraid to mention God to a world who hates him, feeling like we aren't enough, we can't comfort those who hurt. What we need to remember is God will give those words to us.

But we will only have those words if we take the chance to speak. There are many people out there hurting today. There is someone near you crying in pain from loss of love or loved ones. Someone who is crying as weight of this heavy world rests on their shoulders instead of the arms of Jesus hanging in the cross. There is someone crying because of hunger. Someone is pleading with all their heart that life just be easy for them for once. People are looking and searching desperately for peace.

Many of them will not find it. Some will lose their lives before they get to live them. Some will give them up instead of pushing through and seeing the sun rise. And some will go walk by, aching and sad, as we walk the other way. When I realized the chance I missed I prayed. I could have been a comfort, maybe a peaceful word, but instead I was a silent passerby. Maybe it's not always my place to ask questions. Sure some just want to be alone. But the world will never know the love of if we don't show it the love of God. It's better to take a chance and show that people out there do care about strangers and be shut down than not ever saying anything.