ANTI-SOCIAL TENDENCIES

I was asked to pray for Linda Skinner today, whom I met last week at home church. What strikes me about Russ and Linda Skinner is that, despite the hardships that each member of their family has endured, they have remained faithful to God. It's such an encouragement to me to see people who are shouldering such heavy loads to continue serving God without hesitation. Linda had surgery today, a lumpectomy and sentinel node biopsy for a recently-diagnosed small cancerous tumour in her right breast. So, I felt priviledged when Russ asked me to pray for his wife. Absolutely stops me dead in my tracks if I start feeling sorry for myself in my current marital situation. More importantly, I'm reminded that there is so much pain in the world, and that being self-focused causes me to be blinded to others' pains, makes me "anti-social" towards my own community. Opportunity missed to be a blessing to someone else because somehow I think that self-pity brings relief to my own hurts. Well, I know now it doesn't. It just makes me think that I'm supposed to be deserving of things that I've created in my mind, and how dare God not honour these, even though I've been such a "good Christian". I'm discovering more that my pain is made bearable when I'm serving others. I guess the absolute least that I can do is not to cause any more grief in this world. Even better is to be like the Good Samaritan who got off his "ass" to help someone who would not have expected it.