There were some teenagers there who were asking me about how
to find out about what was in the drinks they were drinking – I was doing a
presentation on the sugar content of drinks and how we can find out what’s in
the drinks we’re drinking by reading the labels. There were lots of people who
were interested, but these teenagers were not from the church and were
definitely on the edge. They really wanted to know though, and they drank in
the information like sponges. You know they’re mixing red bull with alcohol,
you just know it, and they smelled like they’d been drinking already that day,
unless it was just the leftover smell coming out of their pores from the night
before. But they really wanted to know the information and they did really care
about their health. I knew I was there for those kids that day.
The work I do is exhausting if you do it with all your heart
the way I do. Time and time again I feel so drained and discouraged, either by things that
I have to deal with or people I have to deal with. It’s what you’d call a
thankless job, and you’re never appreciated enough for all that you do. But
then something will happen, and you know you’ve reached someone, someone who
wouldn’t have known what you have to tell them otherwise and you know you’re
making a difference in their life and giving them new life. Sometimes people
will give you thank you gifts - the church I was working with yesterday gave me
a beautiful fruit basket, so all the way home as I lugged it home along with
all of my other teaching materials I joked with
myself that I was bearing fruit.
And that’s really what I was doing, and why the Lord wanted
me to go yesterday. He knew there were some teenagers who needed my help, two
kids who were acting like adults who needed someone like me to take them
seriously without judging them and to let them know how much they were hurting
their bodies with the soda and red bull they’re drinking. They know the alcohol
is bad, they don’t need to talk about that with me, but they didn’t know about
that soda and red bull and snapple and vitamin water and Arizona and all the
other juice drinks and sugar water they’re drinking all day and all night.
I don’t have much to give to the Lord except for my time and
my heart. But that’s what He’s asking of me and so I give it. I wish sometimes
that I had lots of money so I could just write checks and let someone else do
the work part of it, but I know that’s not what God has asked me to do. He’s
asked me to reach out with my whole heart to people, to be there physically and
emotionally for them. To look them in the eye and talk to them, to let them
know they matter. And if I’m really honest, that’s not all that hard for me to
do. I just get tired sometimes and worn out and weary, but when I’m feeling
like I just can’t do it any more, the Lord gives me the word I need, the
encouragement I need, the gift, the blessing, and fills a basket with fruit so
I can know He’s seeing all I do and is happy that I’m doing it.
A while back I was on my way to teach a workshop and I saw a
woman being blown about by the wind while she tried to walk down to the
sidewalk with her cane and her shopping cart. She was tiny and fragile and so
old and bent over, and I stopped and asked if I could help her. I walked with
her to the grocery store, a walk of a block or two, but it took so long because
she couldn’t walk very fast and she was holding onto my arm. I’m very tall, and
I had to lean over to let her lean on me, so it was an awkward walk for me. I’m
used to breezing along at a clip, and those two blocks took us maybe 15 minutes
or more. When we got to the store, she pulled me down closer so she could look
in my face and she said, “God sees what you do.” I felt like I was part of a
fairy tale – there’s one very like that with an old woman who a young girl asks
if she can help her and then the trip which should be a short one takes so much
longer and the woman has all her bags piled on the girl and finally she climbs
on her back too. Only this woman was much sweeter, and the walk wasn’t the
worst thing in the world at all. It was much longer than I’d thought and a bit
awkward with all of my own bags and leaning over to help support the woman as
she walked, but it was really nothing to me in the scheme of things, and it
meant everything to her. That’s the kind of thing that God sees and loves to
see, when we use our gifts and strengths to help support someone else who
everyone else is ignoring.
Those teenagers were like that yesterday. They weren’t part
of the church, they weren’t there with their families, they were just there
together, not even with a big group, just the two of them. I got the feeling
that they were like that most of the time, on their own, no one paying
attention to them, no one really caring if they were there or not. But I took
the time to care about what they were putting in their bodies, and I let them
know information that they wouldn’t have known any other way. Knowledge is
power, and we can make choices when we know the truth. When we don’t know any
better we just go on doing the same old thing day after day.
I’d like to know what
happens to those kids, but I might not in this lifetime. I might see them again
one day – that happens sometimes to me. People come up to me and say, “Remember
me? You’re the nutrition lady!” And they tell me all about something I talked
to them about and how it changed their life. But even if I don’t see them I
know something happened that was important yesterday, because the Lord sent me
there for them. When He sends you, there’s something special that’s going to
happen, even if you don’t see it or know what it is. All you need to know is
that He sent you, and if He did, there was a good reason. Someone needed to
have you look in their eyes and say you care, they needed to know they’re worth
it.
Blessings,
Jannie Susan
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