ME-ssentials – Appendage – Day Nineteen
ESSENTIALS for Me NOT to Be: Appendage
September 19th, 2021
What’s your ESSENTIAL?
Essential: absolutely necessary; indispensable; the essence of a thing; inherent and intrinsic, vital
Just as there are so many ESSENTIALS for me to be, there are just as many ESSENTIALS for me NOT to be. Let’s explore those the other half of this month!
1 Thessalonians 5:13-15, ‘Get along among yourselves, each of you doing your part. Our counsel is that you warn the freeloaders to get a move on. Gently encourage the stragglers, and reach out for the exhausted, pulling them to their feet. Be patient with each person, attentive to individual needs. And be careful that when you get on each other’s nerves you don’t snap at each other. Look for the best in each other, and always do your best to bring it out.’ (MSG)
We perhaps have never needed this word more than right now. Everywhere we turn there are people attempting to take advantage of others, and at least half of my phone calls I receive on a daily basis, are spam risk and someone trying to scam me. I have never seen or read about so many vehicle accidents, and I remark constantly that people just seem to be losing it. So many medians and street corners house beggars and I never know are they mongers or is it a mom trying to provide for her children or a dad who lost his job and has no way to pay the bills any longer. It’s discouraging, as we face a world trying to heal from the effects of a pandemic, hoping to be discerning about who we can trust, desperate ourselves for protection and provision. So many people I encounter seem like they are on their last nerve, and a smile and kind word today is a commodity, a luxury, a gift. We are harried and disgruntled and our frustration and animosity is an appendage we wear like a chip on the shoulder.
I read an article just the other day about the Afghans and the other people including Americans floundering in that country, particularly those hidden in fear. Their distress and terrifying circumstances they are now embroiled in with no end in sight by any means is heart-wrenching, and it is something I cannot comprehend or wrap my head around in the least. What am I thinking when I impatiently tap my hand on the steering wheel because the person in front of me is driving too slow? What possibly could be so important to me today that I am conjuring up a nasty retort that will let everyone who hears it know that I am not in a good place today? I am worrying over how to best make do with my current living situation because my new home isn’t getting built fast enough while someone halfway across the world is hiding their daughter so she isn’t raped and tortured. My internet speed isn’t fast enough and there isn’t something worthwhile on TV tonight and my order wasn’t served hot enough while another person is facing a real-life catastrophe and someone else is giving away all they have just to obtain food for their family for survival.
Everything has shifted into perspective. I look around me, and instead of being just another one blaring my horn and making sure my scowl is apparent, I know it’s time. It’s time for me to reach out and pull up the exhausted one, open my ears to the cries of humanity, take the scales from my eyes so I can truly assess the needs which exist, and roll up my sleeves and get to work helping be apart of the solution, not the problem.
