another great day

today was a good day...

today i had the chance to be with friends while loving some people we've never met before. it was nice to be able to focus on someone else today besides myself. i'm not using exams as a cop-out, but things do get extremely busy during those last few weeks in a semester. it's hard to take a break from something you're paying that much money to do, but i know that that is no excuse.

someone told me once that as christians we must continuously fight to be the last things on our minds. it's hard isn't it? i can't just be me, can it? so many times we justify what we do because we "need" it. we get so caught up in what WE want and need, that the single mother who works 60 hours a week to feed her 4 kids are forgotten about. that's the one thing i struggle with most, just remembering that it's not all about me.

the best part of my day was at the very end of our hot dog hand out. we had just finished playing footbal with some guys we met in the park. i was hot, sweaty and (most pressing) hungry. after i had settled down and cooled off a little i decided that i could eat. i got to the table and there was one hot dog left. in my head i screamed, "salvation!", but it was not to last. just after i finished putting mustard on my delicious looking beef frank, a woman walked up and asked if we had any left. now in my mind i had many justifications for not giving it to her: "she probably doesn't even like mustard", "my hands are dirty, she doesn't walk that all over her hot dog", "but im so hungry", but i couldn't do it. i wanted too, but i just couldn't do it.

at that moment, while i was trying to justify taking a bite of that hot dog, i realized something. i didn't know how hungry she was, i did't know what she were she was in life, and i didn't know what she had to go home to. now i realize that a hot dog can't fix her life, but knowing that someone care might. that moment got me thinking. how often do i choose to take a bite (metaphorically) of the hot dog and choose myself over another? we are called to be last, but how often do we choose to be first?

that one moment made the entire day worth it to me. if everyone else would have turned down the hot dogs, and she was the only who asked, then i would have still given it to her. why? because it liberated me from myself. i was released from my own chains because i chose to love like christ did.

it was a good day....

i think i'll do it some more...