Below the Surface
The autumnal equinox occurred this year (2015) at 4:21 A.M. EDT on Wednesday the 23rd of September. That exact time seems so matter of fact, but I’m pretty certain I was asleep when it fell, and I never heard a thing. There are still a little over 28 days until winter solstice on December 21st at 11:48 P.M. EST, but autumn has pretty much done its thing here in North Carolina. With a few nights in at under freezing temperatures, and cold fronts with wind and rain, there are few leaves that have not already been driven from their trees.
On the surface, that seems somewhat of a harsh reality… but is it really? So many places throughout this state touched by autumn were no less than brilliant this year, and I was blessed by its splendor. It’s somewhat amazing to think that these wonderful autumnal effects are actually due to leaves dying… I can only hope to go out in a blaze like that. And, having been evicted by the wind, their beauty doesn’t just blink out… their color adds a joyful blanket wherever they fall! Joyful, that is, until it’s time to grab the rake and round them up.
I wonder… would you have known what this was without the one vivid leaf? The pressure of a hydraulic pins it to a rock just below the surface of the Eno River, yet even in the throes of death, its beauty not only speaks, but gives definition to the whole.
I’d be willing to bet that you wish there were times that others knew that there was more to you than just what comes to the surface… but that shouldn’t keep you from offering that beauty that’s just below the surface. Chuck Swindoll tells a moving story about an act of kindness in his sermon Loving What’s Kind. A cab driver picks up a woman who moved slowly and asked him to take the long way around to her destination. The driver took the time to ask her why. She explained she had no family and was headed to a hospice. She wasn’t expected to live much longer. In that moment, the driver decided to spend the day with this woman, and not charge her a fare.
I love this story because, much like this picture, it reminds me I don’t know the whole story. It’s so easy to make assumptions and judgments about others’ motives and actions when I have no right to. What if instead of assuming the worst I choose to be kind? What if I decide to be the person who makes a total stranger’s day? Since hearing this story I’ve wondered what if I was the person to pick up this woman. Would I have bothered to look beneath the surface?
Here are some reasons Chuck says we aren’t kind:
•Kindness takes extra time and we’re all in a hurry
•Kindness makes us put ourselves in someone else’s place and we’re all selfish (it doesn’t come naturally or easily)
•Kindness calls for compassion and we are by nature preoccupied and intense
•Kindness occasionally includes forgiveness but it’s so much easier to hold a grudge
Joyce and I have invited many others to my big family Thanksgiving throwdown (it’s a southern thing), including Chinese nationals (Duke University students) who have never experienced a traditional Thanksgiving typical of American families, though “typical” may be a bit of a stretch where my family’s concerned… it should be fun not only just to express, but share how God still sheds His grace on us and why we are thankful for it. I hope you can find a way to show some goodness and beauty from below the surface.
Below the Surface
The autumnal equinox occurred this year (2015) at 4:21 A.M. EDT on Wednesday the 23rd of September. That exact time seems so matter of fact, but I’m pretty certain I was asleep when it fell, and I never heard a thing. There are still a little over 28 days until winter solstice on December 21st at 11:48 P.M. EST, but autumn has pretty much done its thing here in North Carolina. With a few nights in at under freezing temperatures, and cold fronts with wind and rain, there are few leaves that have not already been driven from their trees.
On the surface, that seems somewhat of a harsh reality… but is it really? So many places throughout this state touched by autumn were no less than brilliant this year, and I was blessed by its splendor. It’s somewhat amazing to think that these wonderful autumnal effects are actually due to leaves dying… I can only hope to go out in a blaze like that. And, having been evicted by the wind, their beauty doesn’t just blink out… their color adds a joyful blanket wherever they fall! Joyful, that is, until it’s time to grab the rake and round them up.
I wonder… would you have known what this was without the one vivid leaf? The pressure of a hydraulic pins it to a rock just below the surface of the Eno River, yet even in the throes of death, its beauty not only speaks, but gives definition to the whole.
I’d be willing to bet that you wish there were times that others knew that there was more to you than just what comes to the surface… but that shouldn’t keep you from offering that beauty that’s just below the surface. Chuck Swindoll tells a moving story about an act of kindness in his sermon Loving What’s Kind. A cab driver picks up a woman who moved slowly and asked him to take the long way around to her destination. The driver took the time to ask her why. She explained she had no family and was headed to a hospice. She wasn’t expected to live much longer. In that moment, the driver decided to spend the day with this woman, and not charge her a fare.
I love this story because, much like this picture, it reminds me I don’t know the whole story. It’s so easy to make assumptions and judgments about others’ motives and actions when I have no right to. What if instead of assuming the worst I choose to be kind? What if I decide to be the person who makes a total stranger’s day? Since hearing this story I’ve wondered what if I was the person to pick up this woman. Would I have bothered to look beneath the surface?
Here are some reasons Chuck says we aren’t kind:
•Kindness takes extra time and we’re all in a hurry
•Kindness makes us put ourselves in someone else’s place and we’re all selfish (it doesn’t come naturally or easily)
•Kindness calls for compassion and we are by nature preoccupied and intense
•Kindness occasionally includes forgiveness but it’s so much easier to hold a grudge
Joyce and I have invited many others to my big family Thanksgiving throwdown (it’s a southern thing), including Chinese nationals (Duke University students) who have never experienced a traditional Thanksgiving typical of American families, though “typical” may be a bit of a stretch where my family’s concerned… it should be fun not only just to express, but share how God still sheds His grace on us and why we are thankful for it. I hope you can find a way to show some goodness and beauty from below the surface.