Yesterday I wasn’t feeling particularly WWJD. One of my many tasks for the day was to mail packages at the post office. I stopped to check my post office box, then proceeded to the post office lobby. I spotted a man approaching the post office doors from the outside. I thought to myself, “He is attempting to beat me to the front door to get ahead of me in line.” To my surprise, he paused, held the door for me, and invited me to go ahead of him in the line. I’m pretty sure a surface layer of ice melted off my heart, but only a the outer most layer.
The gentleman got in line, stepped up to the counter and asked the clerk if she could help him, (he had a brain injury that prevented him from writing). At that point another layer of ice melted off my concrete heart. She told him to stand off to the side and she would help him when the line of people was gone. He stepped aside, patiently waiting. I continued to buy my cards.
An influx of people kept coming in the door; he stood patiently waiting off to the side. I caught a glimpse of his hat, he was a veteran (more ice melted). Another gentleman walked in and asked why this man at the counter wasn’t being helped. At that point I had finished buying my cards. I walked over, tapped his arm, and asked if there was anything I could do to help. The kindness that came out of me was definitely not my own. I knew the Holy Spirit was moving on me. I guess the ice on my heart had melted to the point that God could move.
When I got to my car, I cried. I was so moved by the kindness of God, so reassured that I will move when He wants me to move, so convinced that all the goodness within me is His. He is such a good, good Father, and His love for His children is no match for my self-centeredness. I so desire to be enveloped by His kindness continually, but then I might start to claim it as my own. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of Lights, with whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning (James 1:17 KJV).”
Exercise
1. Abide with Christ daily and allow Him to abide in us.
2. Read God’s Word daily and strive to be a dwelling place for
the Holy Spirit, led by His still small voice.
3. Find a verse to meditate on and ask God to make it a reality
in us.
4. Be patient with ourselves: the Lord is patient with us, and
beauty takes time. We are works in progress.
5. In those rare moments when we think we have it all together
and don’t need Jesus (stay close to a soft surface) —remember,
we all need Jesus, and we all need the indwelling of God’s Holy
Spirit.
