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Making love easier to find

th-13

Looking for hope in a hopeless world

Trying to find love in these hateful times

Try to stay strong but my mind is weak

Looking for hope in a hopeless world

 

“Trying to find love in these hateful times.” That one line from Widespread Panic’s “Hope in a Hopeless World” says it all. That’s your and my mission today — that’s right, this very day — to make love easier to find in these hateful times. We can’t change the hateful times we are in, but we can make love easier to find.

How do you do that? You love those along your path today. You love everyone you meet, because everyone’s needy. That’s the red letter answer. Here it is in case you missed it:

You are the light of the world — like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father. (Matthew 5:14-16)

Jesus wants our good deeds to be our message. And by good deeds He does not mean perfect behavior. This is not about us and our flawless lives (who cares about that?); it’s about us loving people, noticing people, giving people dignity, sharing our wealth, walking with people through pain, and helping them pick up the pieces of their broken lives. These are the good deeds Jesus was talking about here.

This is a short Catch today, but that’s because it’s all been said. There’s nothing left but the doing. So the rest of today’s Catch you can write. Write your own story about how you made love easier to find for somebody today. Leave it as a comment below, or reply to me directly to this email. Your stories will help make this practical for others. And someone might find hope just by hearing you.

If we all made love easier to find today, imagine how much hope we could bring to this hopeless world.

TANKERSLEY

15 responses to “Making love easier to find”

  1. Mark D Seguin

    I have a tear of thankfulness rolling down my cheek as I type this. Because without thinking about it until now from reading Today’s Catch I might have met my mission today & yesterday – “to make love easier to find in these hateful times.”

    You see yesterday as I finished my shopping @ this Health Food Store, they let me charge up my scooter. I noticed this pretty African-American woman drinking this healthy drink made fresh there & recognized the color of it, and commented on how good it & she looked. She smiled & said yes it does taste very good and thanked me 4 the nice compliment too.

    After I had finished my little snack & my scooter was charged enbugh, she goes sir I’d love to pay for a healthy drink for you. Would I like one? I said, I would very much like that…

    She left to go get me one made, which I drove my scooter over & I thanked her for her kindness & smile, which she replied back, that’s the reason she wanted to buy me one. Because I had smiled @ her and gave her a nice compliment. We talked 4 a bit. Come to find out, she too is a believer in the Lord and goes He told us to share His love, which she wanted to do 4 me in paying the health drink as I had done 4 her in helping make her day better in giving her a complement… I replied, I think she could help make about any man’s day better with her smile…

    Also, the same thing, more or less just happened on Facebook & while I was doing a little bit more grocery shopping today. Yesterday, I told someone I told I’d be happy to pray 4 her and this other woman I once knew from college. I told her, she still looks good & I believe in her. (She’s not doing what she went to college for and that gets her depressed @ times) They both told me thx and my remarks helped make their day better…

    And this lovely woman in front of me in the cashier’s line, she had some pretty ferns in her grocery cart, so I told her those looked nice. She goes well thank-you for that while giving me a great big smile too…

    It’s soooo much fun to help people smile – just wish I did it a lot more often! <3 🙂

    Reply
    1. bobnearseattle

      The story of your encounters brought a smile to my face and cheer to my heart. Thank you for sharing and for your encouragement, Mark! 🙂

      Reply
      1. Mark D Seguin

        YW & thank-u brother Bob I often find great encouragement from your comments here. 🙂
        PS So glad u got a smile from my encounters… 🙂

        Reply
  2. Sandie

    What a nice story – too bad more of this doesn’t make the news. We find that same response when we thank the vets;especially the WWII and Korean vets; they look so lost – but brighten up when we recognize their sacrifice – which in turn brightens our hearts.
    This great gift of love we have received from God – this free gift – HAS to be given away and not hoarded. In that respect it reminds me of the manna God gifted the Israelites with in the wilderness. What happened to it if they tried to hoard some overnight? It rotted.
    Since I have been injured, I still try to do real physical work, which I love to do by myself…today I cut back a rubber tree! I can’t carry the barrels to the curb by myself because of the cane I need – but my Bobby is right there to do what I cannot. He’s also there to make me take ‘union’ breaks…sit down and have a cool drink.
    We always do this for each other. Like I said before, this love has to start where you live – when we send each other out the door with a smile, an “I love you,” and a hug and kiss – we set each other up to view the world, and the people in it, in a happy frame of mind.

    Reply
    1. Mark D Seguin

      Thx 4 the good chuckle in this: ‘union’ breaks. I liked that… <3

      Reply
    2. bobnearseattle

      Encouraging words, Sandie, thank you!
      Over the years I’ve made it a point to greet my co-workers each morning with, “Happy Wednesday!” or “Happy Monday!” or “Happy… ” whatever day of the week it is.
      Greeting and treating each day as if it were special – like a holiday – seems to shake them out of their morning blahs and put’s an added bounce in their step.
      Granted, there are those who are NOT morning people but they still manage a smile (or is it a grimace?!) and then humor me by returning the greeting.
      An optimistic and encouraging start to the day is a great sweetener to ones morning coffee, tea, or other beverage.
      It may also result in a positive impact at the end of each persons day.
      Happy hump day!!! 🙂

      Reply
  3. John A Fagliano

    I know you said to share about today but my story goes back a few months. I was walking out of the laundromat. I had just put my clothes in the dryer and was headed out for some lunch. A woman was sitting on the bench outside. She looked sad. “I’m sorry sir can you help me with some change? I need two dollars to get on the bus.” Unfortunately I had no currency to offer. “I’m sorry,” I said, “I don’t have any” and I walked away. As I headed toward my car I remembered I had a stash of quarters in my glove compartment. (Sometimes I have to make change with a large bill and I stuff what I don’t need in there) So I opened the passenger side of my car, got into my glove compartment and pulled out 8 quarters. I went back to her and told her I had quarters in my car. She was quite surprised. No one ever RETURNS to a beggar after having walked away. When I returned to my car I was even more surprised. When I went for my glove compartment, I had set my keys down on the passenger seat and had locked myself out of my car. That NEVER would have happened had I not gone for the glove compartment. I jokingly said, “God, is this how I get rewarded?” Fortunately, I was only a half mile away from my apartment and I knew I could get inside to get my spare car keys. I walked along laughing at myself. When I got back to the laundromat, the woman was gone. I guess she caught her bus. I had to put off lunch but it was worth it to be the angel that someone had been praying for. I guess the moral of the story is, you don’t have to be perfect to be kind to someone. You can even be an idiot who locks his keys in his car!

    Reply
    1. Mark D Seguin

      Great story John! <3

      Reply
    2. bobnearseattle

      Good story and very funny, John – thank you!!
      I’ve had many of those “Homer Simpson” moments, too: “Doh!”
      The ability to appreciate the Lord’s sense of humor and be able to laugh at ourselves – especially when things don’t seem “fair” – is a gift and blessing from God that needs to be cultivated and sown a little more “seriously” by all of us.
      The Joy of the Lord is our strength… 🙂

      Reply
      1. Sandie

        I call those moments my ‘blonde going grey’ episodes!

        Reply
  4. Sandie

    I remembered an incident from several years ago. The church I attended had a yearly ‘Trunk or Treat’ event for Halloween that I was in charge of. I had contacts with several businesses to supply me with pumpkins, cornstalks, and hay bales for decoration. The gentleman who owned the Feed Store where I got the hay bales always bought them back from me since I only used them for the one night. Anyway, I always made it a practice to write letters of appreciation on church letterhead and personally delivered them to every person, and to their manager(s) if appropriate. Well, when I got to the owner of the feed store, he read the letter and tears came into his eyes – which resulted in tears in my eyes.His tears told me he got very little thanks for the many things I know he did in the local community. I bet that letter is still hung in his office. Like my mom used to say, “It costs very little to be nice’” (she used to throw in clean too!). THX for all the great stories shared!

    Reply
    1. Mark D Seguin

      Good story about that gentleman Sandie and TY 4 sharing it…. 🙂

      Reply
  5. bobnearseattle

    Ah! The wide-eyed innocence and love of a child!
    After seeing this story (below) on CBS Evening News tonight I thought how appropriate and timely it is for this particular Catch.
    What an inspiration this 4-year old is who says, “Feeding the homeless is the highlight of my life!” and tells everyone, “Don’t forget to show love!”
    https://www.cbsnews.com/video/president-austin-getting-a-lot-of-love-for-his-crusade-to-help-the-homeless/

    Reply
    1. John A Fagliano

      Thanks for sharing that, Bob. I just shared that video on my facebook. What a beautiful child.

      Reply
  6. jwfisch

    ThaNk you, everybody, for taking part. These stories are beautiful in their simplicity. So many people are so isolated in a crowd that it doesn’t take much to give them worth.

    Reply

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