THAT PERSON RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME

 

                                           THAT PERSON RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME

              Lord, I have missed your will in so many ways!  I think of the time that a senior gentleman had fallen on the sea of ice behind my apartment building.  Both the ladies I was driving with to church and I immediately thought of the good Samaritan story.  In front of us was an almost identical situation.  A lady from an upstairs window called out that the superintendent had been called, and, more importantly, an ambulance.  My friend threw a blanket over him, said a few comforting words, then we left.  I always felt that I should have stayed with him until help arrived. 

              I was in a situation once when I was teaching in a village before I got married.  An OPP officer, the husband of one of my colleagues and a wonderful person, had answered a domestic violence call without backup, and had been stabbed with a knife, endangering his eye and career.  I lived in a cottage on a campground, about twenty feet away from the trailer of another policeman.  He and his girlfriend had been good neighbours to me.  But after the stabbing, this policeman said that he and a few other officers were going to beat the offender up as a reaction to what had happened to their comrade.  I could hardly believe that he would say this so openly, obviously thinking that it was perfectly fine for police officers to take the law into their own hands.  While I have personally found the police to be very professional in my interractions with them, I also knew that often illegal beatings do go on in hidden rooms.  I am sure that I spoke against this idea, but did not have the courage to prevent it by threatening to inform the local paper, through fear of retaliation, and because I myself had lost confidence through a personal situation of my own.  This is the enemy’s masterful timing.  I have just recently realized that the Lord wanted to use me in this situation, but I failed Him.

              Once on a reserve I saw a two-year-old child being grabbed by the hair and thrown to the sidewalk.  Only much later did I inform the native social services of this, since the same family had that position.  I was a guest on the reserve.  However, I am ashamed of this cowardice.  Just saying.

              We must realize that the Lord has placed us in certain situations because He needs us to respond.  I am challenged today to learn from my mistakes and to “do justly”.

He has shown you, O man, what is good.  And what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, and to love kindness and mercy, and to humble yourself and walk humbly with your God? Micah 6:8(Amp).

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