Do Pretty Girls Know They are Pretty?

This is The Purpose Filled Life

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I hope in reading this you may gain some new insights and generate some fresh enthusiasm for care and kindness, and being The Light of the World, as Jesus named us. 

I love that word en-thus-iasm.  As you may know the "thus"  in the middle (t-h-u-s) comes from the Greek word Theos.  Theos means "God" in the Greek language.  It is the first part of the word Theology which means God Knowledge,  God-ology.

So en-thus-iasm really means to have God energy, or God inside, that you are a God driven God centered person.  Add enthusiasm to “You are the light of the world”  and we have a mighty important presence.

I was told a few days ago about a women’s Bible Study to which a stranger showed up and took a seat.  The meeting continued on dealing with its agenda and then adjourned.  Rightly behaving Christians would see to it that stranger had thirty people around her welcoming her.  Instead there was one. Okay, that is all it takes, but there should have been 30 concerned women tripping over each other to get to her side.  Instead of one.

My dear friends YOU  must take ownership of this challenge to make the world a better place, to care about strangers, to reach out into uncomfortable places where you’d rather not be.

Many of you have seen the powerful movie The Passion of Christ.  What a comfort shattering experience that is!!  It calls us to suffer too.  It insists that we too give our lives for others.  WE ARE CALLED TO LEAVE THE COMFORT ZONE AND GET HURT IF NECESSARY WHILE TRYING TO BRING HEALING TO OTHERS.

WE MUST DIE FOR OTHERS.  AND WHENEVER WE WALK ACROSS THE ROOM, INTROVERT THAT I may be, and welcome a stranger, as ineptly as I may do it I AM DYING FOR HER. AND IN DYING FOR HER I AM RESUSCITATING HER, RAISING HER A LITTLE, FROM THE DEAD.

I BEG YOU TO TAKE TOTAL OWNERSHIP OF EVERY ROOM YOU SIT IN, OR ENTER.  I BEG YOU TO TAKE LEADERSHIP IN NOTICING WHO IS THERE AND INTENTIONALLY APPROACHING WHOEVER MIGHT POSSIBLY BE ALONE AND ENDEAVOR IN SOME FAULTY, TREMBLING, INARTICULATE WAY IF NECESSARY, TO include them and bring them IN. 

JUST BE THERE!!  We must think of every human being as “the walking wounded”  but our task is not to fix them.   FIXING IS UNDERWAY WHEN WE GREET A STRANGER, OR LIFT THE SPIRITS OF ANYONE.   LEAVE THE  DELIBERATE FIXING TO GOD.  I LIKE THIS PLAY ON WORDS    “Don’t just do something.  Stand there.”

God surrounds us with His Presence while allowing for the God-created natural process to run its course.  AND THAT IS WHERE WE COME IN.  BE THERE!  BE WITH PEOPLE.  Greet them.  Touch them.  Smile at them.  Listen to them.  Walk with them.  Weep with those who weep.

In a Peanuts cartoon Charlie Brown asks Lucy:  “Do pretty girls know they are pretty?”    

                                    “Only if somebody tells them,” says Lucy.

That Peanuts cartoon is a metaphor about life in general.

A compliment to a pretty girl makes them even prettier.  Kind words are like vitamins that nourish  the spirit.  A nourished spirit makes the body healthier and inspires the person to their own good deeds.  So care and kindness is a strategic way to generate an ever-expanding chain of goodwill spreading like a prairie fire across the world, creating much needed global warming.

What does the Lord require of you?  “To act justly. To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God.”  Mic. 6:8

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is to look after orphans and widows (and strangers, geeks, teenagers, sick people, the walking wounded, the aged, the grieving—and everybody else struggling, hurting and handicapped, or diminished. --adapted from James 1:27.