A New Year

I grew up mostly in a small town. We were one of the larger towns for our area, but still, it was a little place where you knew everyone in school, you saw mostly the same people most of the time, you did business at the same places and, when things happened to someone, it affected everyone.

Its a little different in a city. When you hear sirens, you don't call around to see who was in an accident. When people are hurting or having trouble, you are just glad it wasn't you or yours. When you see an accident, you don't stop to try and help, you just get irritated that they are keeping you from where you need to go.

It's just different here. We are busy.

This morning, as I was heading out while it was still dark to pick Ethan up from some all night thing for teens at the church, I saw a young girl trying to push her obviously not working car out of a busy intersection.

My first thought was, "I hope someone is around to help her."

I had one of those I'm not gonna stop, I'm in a hurry, I'm sure she will be fine, I don't want to scare her, she looks like she's got it moments.

Then I thought, no, that sucks. I've been broke down before, and it feels so frustrating and you can feel so helpless when their is no one to help. If it was me, wouldn't I want someone to just help out a little?

So, I helped her push her car out of the intersection and made sure she had someone coming to rescue her, and felt like a jerk for not wanting to take five minutes to help someone out.

This is a New Year. 
I'm not trying to brag about my good deeds. In fact, I'm a little embarrassed to share how I've overlooked people I should have helped plenty of times, and was going to just leave her there to take care of her own problems, when helping wasn't much trouble at all.

I just hope you will take a moment to consider how you might be able to help someone else if you are able. And how you might bring a little concern for those outside your usual circle, even if they seem a to be giving you a little inconvenience.

Happy New Year friends!