Day 10: Walking in step with the spirit

"For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God"

Yesterday was a long, tiring day, which is why I am only posting now. I was at McDonald's letting Eddie run off steam when I had an interesting interaction that has caused me to stop and ponder a minute. When we first came in, the place was empty except for a 2 year old girl and her parents (who were a little on the older side). Eddie ran into the play area and right up to the mom and said "Hi." The mom jumped back a little and I could tell she was getting her feathers raised, quickly judging Eddie to be a hellion. Arms full of Andrew and food, I reluctantly sprang into action and called Eddie to come sit down with me at the table -- a little dismayed that my time to relax was going to be spent on guard.

We sat there and Eddie ate some bites of food, then ran to the playground. He climbed up. The little girl, feeling brave, followed him. "She's never gone that high before." I told her that Eddie used to be afraid of climbing and only recently has started going to the top of the structure. Slowly, her demeanor changed. Her guard came down. She told me how it was always full of rowdy kids which made her nervous.

Then, the place started filling up with the dinner rush. The first to come was a couple of older kids - maybe 7 yr old girl and 10 yr old boy. The boy came up to Eddie and his new little playmate and said "wanna be friends" He repeated over and over. I saw mama's tail feathers ruffle. "He's wierd." she whispered to me. He reminded me of me at that age.... awkward and socially under-developed. I saw brokenness in the room. Brokenness in the fear of the mom at a world she couldn't control. Brokenness in a boy who perhaps knew a type of loneliness

We have such a hard time recognizing and communicating with each other. We are so caught up in our own stories. Our fears, our loneliness, our pride, our tiredness that we don't take the time to really see who's around us and what's going on with them. And even if we do happen to notice each other's words and actions, we can't understand the spirit behind them. I don't know what was really going on under the surface. But in each of them I sensed something deeper going on and had a flickering desire to offer compassion.

God can teach us new ways to see the world, the languages of love and compassion that allow us first to notice and then to be moved by compassion. We can learn to walk in the ways of the spirit and offer light if we just take a moment to be present.