Making A Difference in Life
Do not get so involved in your life that you forget to help others with their concerns.
By Colleen K Pulley
How stupid we are, wasting away our time on such insignificant matters. Scurrying through the years, trying to fill our houses, and lives with things we can’t take with us in the end. Thinking it will go on forever like this, and then when death and life changes finally confront us with an IOU that is due now, we are totally unprepared for it. Stupidly we think that somehow it would appear “Someday”, but surely not today.
I think God must get awfully tired of watching us as we repeatedly tell him we’ll pay “Tomorrow”. He must shake his head as he listens to us beg, bargain, and then curse him, as the price of life is extracted from us.
Why is it so few of us seem to understand that this life is only a brief moment (in our eternal journey)? We spend our time trying to get all we can for themselves. Instead, we should be using some of our time to serve others and trying to do good.
What makes a George Washington or Mother Theresa, who do good; and at the same time an Adolf Hitler or Jack the Ripper do evil? What makes some nurture and care for their fellow beings, and others murder and brutalize them? Why?
Did some mother or father lead a child to become a great human being, or did someone else teach them hate and brutality? Did some few come here (from premortal life) with greatness while others came with brutality and degradation as their destiny?
We are all here together, man and woman, Saint or Demon. It is our destiny that we are creating, our moment in time that we have the ability to influence. What will those we leave behind remember us for? Good or Evil, giving or taking? It is up to us.
I am but a woman, a small spark that will leave this earth, hopefully a little better than the way I found it. I, like countless other people, thought when I was young that time was forever, and I could worry or think of others later. Fortunately, time and age have mellowed me before it was too late to change.
I remember a song sung by Julie Andrews in the musical “Sound of Music”. She is in a gazebo singing to Baron Von Trapp, and the words tell it all “ ... Somewhere in my wicked childhood, I must have done something good”. That is the key, I think. We have somehow got to stop in our life and say, what good have I done? An old Sunday School song from my childhood relayed this same thought, “Have I done any good in the world today? Have I helped anyone in need? Have I cheered up the sad? Or made someone feel glad? If not, I have failed indeed.” This is the challenge. To be more than we are to someone else.
Can we look at our families, and those we know, and start with them? If we try, can we do something that we alone can do to make a difference in the lives of others? What about the neighbor across the street, or the person you work with? Everyone around us could utilize something that we alone can give them. Can we do it?
We are but humans trying to get through this short flicker in time. Can we somehow influence an individual’s life for good who is struggling through their moment in life? Here is an example of what I’m talking about.
My husband and I had spent a wonderful day sightseeing in the countryside. It was almost midnight when we finally took the exit off the freeway to our hometown. The gas gage was almost empty when we pulled into a service station about ten miles from home. I went inside to pay for the gas. I noticed a young man in his twenties. He was on his way home, and for some reason his credit card wasn’t allowing him to get money out of the ATM. The next day was Sunday, and he had over a thousand miles to get home to Los Angeles. He asked the teller if there was any way the gas station would take a check? Of course, the poor attendant had probably heard this from many others, and with a cynical smile he shook his head no.
I was at the counter listening to the young man, and the thought came to me, what if that was my son, or brother, or neighbor? Would I leave them stranded in a town a thousand miles from home? The answer was obviously no. Then the thought, “Probably he is just some “scammer trying to get money to support his drug habit. It isn’t my concern.” But something stopped me before I could leave the station.
I looked the young man in the eye, and without hesitating told him I would help him out. I asked the attendant to fill his gas tank up, and then used my ATM card to withdraw a hundred dollars to see him home. The young man’s eyes widened in surprise and gratitude. He wanted me to know that he would pay the money back when he got home. He gave me his address, then took mine, telling me he would send the money to me. I smiled at him and said, “Someday you could return the favor by helping some other young man who needed a hand in life
My husband shook his head when I told him, about the young man. With a smile, he told me I probably would not see that money again, but I didn’t care. To me, I had sent the young man off to his waiting mother in California. I felt a wonderful sense of gratitude that I could have the experience of helping someone in need.
Two weeks later I received a letter from the young man’s mother thanking me for helping her son. A postscript at the bottom of the note was from the young man. “Your generosity got me over the thousand miles back home. I will never forget your kindness. I promise I will remember to pay it forward. May God bless you”. A check for the amount I had given him fell out of the note.
We are all scurrying about life in search of the golden cheese, but we must remember that often the quickest way to find the cheese is with the help we extend to others. Just something to think about. Until later…Colleen
If you enjoyed this article, you can find more content like this under the Topic Categories link. We also look forward to our readers input, so please leave a “like” or a comment.