Vessel of the Lord

 So often I grow complacent in everyday life and go through the motions of the day without truly looking at a single person. I find myself glancing up only occasionally from a starbucks line or bookstore aisle to quickly meet the gaze of a bystander, only to quickly avert my attention back to the enthralling book cover or to the vast selection of caffeine choices available. It amazes me that I can stare blankly into a person's eyes around me and see only hollowness. I'm convinced it takes a certain level of talent and practice to be so self absorbed that I cannot see past my own problems. How is it that I can look at people and remain so guarded that I fail to notice the flecks of pain in their forced smile, the rigid facial expression that reveals a great degree of anxiousness, or the spark in their eyes that comes from pure joy? We come in contact with so many people throughout the day (I am sure some smart person has conducted a study that gives a number for this but I don't know it off the top of my head). What would it look like if I were to make the most of these interactions, even with complete strangers, and focus more on them. I strongly believe that each day we wake up is a gift from God and is meant to be used entirely for His glory. I am not trying to put words in God's  mouth but I'm fairly confident that there is nothing honoring to Him when we remain fixated on our own agendas and fail to love or even acknowledge the existence of the beautiful human beings He has placed in our path for the day.

        I suppose this is such a big issue to me because it is one I largely struggle with and have been convicted of. The Lord has shown me that appearances truly are deceiving and even the seemingly most put-together-person has scars and deep wounds that inflict unimaginable pain. Perhaps you encounter a beautiful girl in line and due to jealousy you begin to measure yourself up to her and immediately judge her because life for Barbie look-alikes like herself must be perfect. What you may not realize is that this girl struggles with an eating disorder and fails to see her own worth or beauty. Her body image is incredibly distorted and she is in bondage to the lies Satan feeds her: that she is worthless, she will never be good enough, she is ugly. She does not realize that she is fearfully and wonderfully made, and the daughter of a great King who loves and adores her and has created her in his perfect image. Just maybe, God placed this girl in your path (or perhaps vice versa) so that you could simply smile and show her that she has worth and help her regain confidence in the Lord. Or, maybe you pass by someone sitting at the bar as you enter a restaurant. So often it is easy to judge this person but what if we were to take time to realize that this very person may be spending their evenings alone attempting to drown out their problems and worries. They feel hopeless, dejected, and see no worth or point to life and maybe they are contemplating ending their own. I am not trying to place guilt or convict others. I am simply relaying what the Lord has been teaching me. I struggle with this in the worst way, but through his grace, the Lord has taught me that THESE are the very people He died for. Like me, they are in desperate need of a Savior and cannot find true joy or meaning apart from Him. In a video, a non Christian actually commented that if Christians really believed in God and the Bible, then how much would they have to hate someone to not tell them about Christ. I think this is a great question and one that I am in constant need of thinking about. If I believe in the sovereignty of the Lord and that Christ is the only way to salvation, and in Him alone is life found, how could I not tell others around me about this great hope. It amazes me that the Lord is willing to use me, even though He certainly does not need me, to be a light to these dark and broken souls. He can use me to speak truth straight into someone's life as he becomes the perfect salve for their gaping wounds.

         It is my prayer that God will continue to break my heart for what breaks His, and let me feel deep sorrow and love for the very people around me that are in need of His grace and love. What if I lived each moment fully expecting Him to work in the lives of the people around me? How incredible it would be to be a vessel He can work through to touch these lives. But in order to do that, I must first look into their eyes and smile.