The Gift

 

Please allow me to introduce to you Lydia.  Yesterday, I sat in a hotel lobby working before I left for my meeting.  I was sitting in a quiet corner of the lobby on a couch with my laptop in front of me.  There were high back chairs across the coffee table and another to the right.  As I sat there in my own little world, comfortably typing away on my keyboard and enjoying my Earl Grey hot tea, I saw someone in the corner of my eye walk up behind the chair to my right and I could smell the heavy odor of burnt cigarettes in an ash tray.  As I turned my head to identify the smell, Lydia took a seat on the edge of the chair, legs together, hands holding her Pall Mall Cigarettes and she said in a motherly voice any son would recognize, “sir……..do you know how much water and a sandwich would cost in this place?”.

Exactly eight days earlier, I was at another Hotel in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado standing in front of an audience giving a speech about this exact moment in time.  The objective of that speech was to persuade every person to help others in distress because of three benefits.  While there are many, I chose to discuss three.  They were:

1.  Assist in the protection and/or repair of relationships as a result of distress
2. The engagement of assistance helps relieve anxiety.  People see and feel that they are not alone through the engagement of relationship.
3. The blessings that are given and received when you come alongside and walk with someone during their time of distress.  In most cases, your ability to listen is sufficient to let someone know they can make it through to the other side.

Today, I was given a gift from Lydia.  It came in the form of the three benefits above.  Before she left to eat breakfast in the Hotel, we talked and I listened to her for about 15 minutes.  We discussed her medications, the homeless shelter she sleeps in at night, where to go and get the best food off the dollar menu.  By the way, Lydia loves donuts.  She told me about her son and daughter, the challenges that the fights against everyday and she was especially proud of the necklace she is wearing which has a pendant heart with an arrow through it.  She enthusiastically told me that she bought it out of the candy machine and it only cost 25 cents!  As our conversation concluded, Lydia gave me permission to pray for her health, safety, family and any other provision that is needed as we sat in the lobby of the hotel.  We shook hands, shared a smile and Lydia disappeared around the corner into the breakfast area. I went back to work.

As I stared at my computer screen, I reflected on the conversation and hoped that Lydia experienced some type of relational repair from the distress she is living in.  As we spoke to each other her initial anxiety evaporated and she began to smile and share her story.  Equally important, we both left with the gift of blessing each other’s life.  Unfortunately, Lydia was dealing with extreme distress.  We are all one bad decision, accident or surprise away from extreme distress although we move through our weeks of life as if it will never happen to us.  I hope you will join me in helping people you find in distress and experience the gifts of assisting others.  There is always more than one day in our life when we will desire to be the recipient of assistance in our distress.  Is there someone you can help today?