Sunrise Ripples, Greensboro, NC
"I had traveled pretty widely in Canada and the United States, city and town and country, and I saw so many people every day, going about their lives, interacting with each other, and I realized that my overall opinion of them by that time was...not high.
So many men and women, young and old, looked and behaved in ways that seemed cruel, petty, self-absorbed, self-righteous, and smug...I had to admit that a lot of people, maybe even most, did not behave very well toward each other.
Most people spend their whole lives in a fairly narrow circle of like-minded friends and neighbors, where it is easy to accept the comforting illusion of human goodness (except for those damn foreigners). But if that insulation were suddenly stripped away, their world might suddenly become a lot bigger, and a lot darker. It is a jungle out there." --Neil Peart, Ghost Rider
Jesus knew this all too well. He was constantly criticized for loving and healing the outcasts and not the in crowd. It's easy to love the lovable. It's a much different ball game to love the unlovable. It takes us waaaay out of our comfort zone. And words can painfully hurt as much as physical actions. Just look no further than the recent cyber bullying cases that resulted in suicide. Yet, just a comforting word of concern and caring for someone who is suffering can bring healing into that person's life as effectively as medications. And doing good is like casting bread upon the rippling waters--it circles back to you and replenishes you many times over.
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