Doesn’t it feel like when you ask someone how they’re doing they almost always say, “Oh I’m good. Bust busy. ” i feel like people almost see “busy” as a badge of honor?
I will admit, when I look at my schedule, my calendar had a tendency to get full in a hurry. I’m not proud of that. It’s simply the demands of family and life.
The other day, I was out for a training run in preparation for the Chicago Marathon. I was pounding out the miles when I noticed a man walking with his head down. “Hello”, as I took a deep breath and passed him. He smiled and kept walking. His face looked familiar, but I couldn’t place it. As I kept running, the image of him kept going through my mind, “How do I know him?!” “Eh. If that’s who I think it is, he will think I’m crazy for stopping to say something. “
Let me rewind to 6 weeks prior to this encounter. I was at a visitation for a woman who had been battling a terrible disease. I was introduced to a kind, gentle man with a calm demeanor. He was quite shy, but thankful my wife and I came to pay our respects for his loss. He is the dad to a good friend of mine.
This is why he looked so familiar to me. He was the man who just recently lost his wife.
After finally putting all of the pieces together, I turned around and introduced myself. He couldn’t remember where he knew me from. After a brief conversation, it all came back to him. I simply said, “I’m sorry for your loss. And I want you to know that I have been keeping your family in prayer”. He smiled, nodded, and said, “thank you”.
That brief 30 seconds truly made an impact on me. What if I didn’t stop? What if I simply went along with my business in “training mode”.
I almost missed an incredible blessing to not only say hello but to encourage a man feeling the sting of losing his wife.
Help me understand why we are so busy that our schedule is always much more important than anything else?
Don’t be busy. Go make a difference. Always run by faith.
Feel free to subscribe and share this with a friend.