Tidings of Comfort

Does this time of year make you think more compassionately than normal?

Does it have you so stressed out you can’t think at all?

Today, I heard a news story that always runs somewhere this time of year…about the Society of Secret Santas. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m very grateful for the Secret Santas…in fact, I hope to be one when I grow up and have 100s of dollars I can give randomly to strangers in need at the holidays. But I also think the way we connect with one another needs to go so much farther than the satisfaction of the clink our change makes as we drop it in a red bucket, or even the extra burst of volunteering and commitment we offer during this season.
I think we need to consistently make ourselves uncomfortable on others behalf.

Today, I’m going to quote a blog I wrote last year when news events prompted me to reflect on the ways we fail to connect. Maybe it’s a recurring theme when I realize my own inadequacy. If you want to know what I was thinking then, you can find it on page 165 of Blooming Where You’re Planted, or here on the Bloomin’ Blog in the February 2, 2009 blog entry. Here’s an excerpt that echoes how I’m feeling today and reminds me that I’m called to be less than secretive and more than Santa.

…Sometimes, the left behind seem just a little too friendly. Sometimes,I’m afraid if I give a little, they may need a lot and I just am notavailable for that kind of commitment right now.

See. It isshameful. God doesn’t put on the breaks in his relationship with mewhen I start to feel clingy. He just holds me close. Jesus pouredhimself out for the untouchable and the irritating (have you evernoticed how many really obvious questions his own disciples ask himover and over!?). Then here am I, who has everything, yet I act as ifsharing my abundance…my patience, my friendship, my time…might bethe sacrifice of my last drop of water on a trek through the desert.

Well,when I get down to my last drop, I hope I have the presence of mind topour it all out with joy on behalf of someone who needs it a little bitmore.

It is time to share, my friends. These days call for smiling on each other. For getting together.For making ourselves uncomfortable so that others might feel comforted.It is time to see need in the less-than-obvious places, and in the mostobvious places. See the needs of the lovely woman with the coutureclothing who feels friendless and unloved. See the needs of thepanhandler in front of McDonald’s who may need the contact of your eyesand the warmth of your smile more than he needs a dollar. See the needsof the people in your home who you may meet with assumptions instead ofunderstanding.

Go forward and meet these needs in love…the kind of love that teaches us not just to treat others the way we would like to be treated, but to treat others the way they would like to be treated. It’s time has come. Love is the mightiest word. Love one another. Right. Now.

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