This morning as I was driving to work, my thoughts ran wild thinking about everything I needed to do today and just playing out my week in my head. I was driving my normal route when I saw a girl and her dog walking half way in the street and I thought to myself “what in the world is this girl doing in the street she is going to get hit”. Seconds passed and she turned her head and looked toward me with a lost, worried, and confused look on her face. It then dawned on me, that is her guide dog and she is blind. My heart sunk in my chest as she stood in the middle of the road right before my car. She tugged on her dog and then proceeded wandering down the street.
In a hurry to get to work I slowly and carefully drove past her, and then proceeded my route. I drove a few more blocks and felt tears begin to well up in my eyes. Those blocks were the longest stretches of road I had ever driven as I just felt the Lord pressing on my heart and asking me “why didn’t you stop and help her? What would I have done? what if you were lost and couldn’t see?”
Every second that past, my heart became more and more overwhelmed with sadness and conviction. I finally hit the third stop sign and turned around.
I began driving around looking for her and found her walking towards campus corner, as she maybe have been a new student at OU walking to class trying to find her way on the first day of school. I rolled down my window and began to shout at her “Are you okay!! Do you need help finding your way? Are you lost?” She turned her head looking around to see where the voice she was hearing was coming from and then said back with a smile “Yes, yes, I am good! We are good!” and kept walking as the pretty lab quickly dragged her along the sidewalk.
I started rolling up my window and the second the glass hit the top I burst into tears. I was then drowned with a wave of compassion, sadness, and reality. That young girl had just changed my life forever and she doesn’t even know it.
I couldn’t even see the road as I started my route to work again, with a flood of tears streaming down my face. It hit me. How selfish am I that it was even a thought whether or not to stop and help her? Am I really that worried and in a hurry that getting to work on time is more important to me than this young girl?
She may not have needed me today but I sure needed her.
Today, I am reminded by this perfect stranger’s smile just how fortunate and blessed I am. I am driving to work, I have eyes that can see, a voice that can speak, ears that can hear, and a heart that is beating. I am blessed beyond measure.
Everyday is a gift. Every breathe is a gift. Every life is a gift.
I share this story to remind you, as I have been reminded today, to slow down.
Take a look around you, take a look at your life and your heart. Are you speeding around in a hurry and worried about yourself, like I was? Have you forgotten just how blessed you are? Are you withholding blessings from those around you? Even something as simple as checking on someone to make sure they are doing okay or gifting a friend with your company or time? What is the Lord laying on your heart?
I am putting myself in this young girls shoes today… What if every time I needed the Lord, as I wander around life lost, worried, and confused, He didn’t stop for me and had something better to do? Where would I be in life?
I pray today that the Lord would give me new eyes to see things the way He does, in all areas of my life. I pray for this young girl and that a miracle would happen for her today. I pray for the hearts of those in this country that need a wake up call like I did today, that the Lord would give them new eyes to see people through the lens He intends for us to.
Let us not be so wrapped up in our own worlds that we forget to step inside someone else’s and care for them. Until we do this we will never be able to live life to the fullest and experience the sweetest blessing of blessing someone else.