I always loved the expression from Zig, where he proclaimed that he reads the news and the bible each day to see what both sides are up to!!!! There are so many sides nowadays and most of them proclaim all that is terrifying and dividing and always not the most truthful. I am not alone in wondering if maybe just maybe we need to create our own headlines. There are so many praiseworthy things going on and if we spend our time pointing those out then I wonder, I just wonder perhaps we can focus on the world we are creating.
Andy Stanly shared this story and it made me create a new affirmation and I hope it will spark something in you as well.
“Sometimes I just want it to stop. Talk of COVID,looting, brutality, I lose my way. I become convinced that this “new normal” is real life. Then I meet an 87 year old who talks of living through polio, diphtheria, Vietnam protests and yet is still enchanted with life.
He seems surprised when I said that 2020 must be especially challenging for him. “No,” he said slowly, looking me straight in the eyes. “I learned a long time ago to not see the world through the printed headlines, I see the world through the people that surround me. I see the realization that we love big. Therefore I just choose to write my own headlines:
“Husband loves wife today.” “Family drops everything to come to Grandma’s bedside.” He patted my hand, “Old man makes new friend.”
His words collide with my worries, freeing them from the tether I had been holding tight. They float away. I am left with a renewed spirit and a new way to write my own headlines.” ~ Andy Stanley.
I have lived long enough to witness and to be in headlines worth celebrating:
“Woman gives a kidney to a woman she barely knows but knows that she has something that someone needs and she has it to give, so she does.”
“Man is sober for many years and spends hours on porch sharing and loving other men to sobriety.”
“Woman in Wild Heron is so moved by the great need after Hurricane Michael she creates a charity to help others and dedicates her full life to the cause.”
“Woman creates a clothes closet for people that are without such simple necessities after Hurricane Michael wiped out their closets.”
“Man gives a kidney and creates a loving home for his wife and 2 children and when faced with losing his child he is a witness to others.”
“Woman is so moved by being a child of incarcerated parents she spends her life loving and lifting men behind bars.”
“Woman loses her daughter to addiction and is not quiet so that other mamas don’t have to be hurt.”
“Company is filled with compassionate hard working humans who know that it is in the giving that we are blessed beyond measure.”
“Woman wants her girls to never feel the lack of a mothers love so she creates a stable loving environment with her husband.”
“Woman loses her mate and builds her life from scratch and does so while loving and remembering all of her friends and serving humanity and being Christlike.”
“Young men become sober after many attempts and spend their days sharing their experience, strength and hope.”
All around us are people making good choices, noble choices, kind choices and just doing the next right thing because it is the next right thing. I believe that the world is a beautiful place to live inspite of the things that could go wrong and do. I have seen the most beautiful of people in the worst of circumstances. It is when life has been tough that I get to see the best in humanity.
This past year has caused each of us to realize that we are far more connected than we ever would admit. We are having to be our brother’s keeper like never before. We are balancing our rights with our beliefs that we are called to love and to serve. Our rights are precious but so are all of our brothers and sisters. I believe that we will see more headlines of people doing what needs to be done to create a world that we all want to live in.
I know those headlines! love you my friend!
you are so sweet to me!