We are fellow travelers, you and I, each taking different roads, riding in different vehicles, and following different itineraries. Some travel at a leisurely pace, others are destination driven. Whatever our style, we all meet people along the way, which can be a bane or a blessing.
People can fill us or drain us, enrich us or deplete us. Either way, they’re unavoidable and part of God’s plan for our journey. Did I just hear a collective sigh? I could respond with comments about setting parameters or suggest possible purposes why God put them in our path, but instead, let’s look in a different direction.
Am I a blessing to the people along my path—all of them, not just friends and A-listers?
Our son David has taught me a lot about accepting people. David is disabled, a 38-year-old child with an uncomplicated, trusting view of everyone he meets. He embraces strangers and kisses the hands of waitresses. He is never put off by class, needs, or ethnicity. Like his dad, a stranger is simply a friend he’s not yet met.
And David prays for everyone—the sad, the sick, the troubled, the teen, the imprisoned, the addicted, the challenged, and those on the front page of the newspaper. On David’s life journey, each person he sees (whether or not he’s introduced) is worthy of his friendship and intercession. I think disabled is a relative term.
When I grow up, I want to be like David.
“A new command I give you: Love one another.
As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”
John 13:34
Change is not always abrupt and unannounced. Sometimes we sense it coming and even anticipate it. Seasonal changes seem easier to accept—they are predictable and transitory. They give us time to prepare and even appreciate the phase of change, comforted by the knowledge that this will pass, like the seasons of nature.
Change presents fertile conditions for growth, but growth cannot be assumed.