To Believe

To believe in the things that God is doing amongst the people all around us. Today I am baffled once again by the God’s amazing work amongst us today.

We can rant on and on about how “ungodly” hippies are. We can tell pub-crawlers how “evil” or “sinful” their actions are.  We can brush off a socialite’s work as being “satanic” or self-motivated.  We can easily criticise and cast aspersions upon the character and nature of people who do not fit into our category of “do-gooders” or “nice and decent”.

However, rather than cynically categorising people who don’t quite fit into our image of people who do good and great things, it indeed takes a lot more faith to actually dare to grasp hold of the goodness that is in the hearts of these people and to connect with them through the spirit that resonates deep within each and every individual. And those who are able to do so are indeed greater than those who merely go around labelling and disparaging the works of others.

Today, I am reminded yet again of how easy it is to fall into the mindset of categorising people according to our preconceived notions of goodness. This happened after my final lecture for the day. One of my coursemates came up and played a video advertisement, primarily telling people about her having her head shaved and requesting that people donate in support of her. The video was quite entertaining, I must admit, and I thought it was pretty well choreographed.

At first, I thought to myself: Ah, what a waste of time! She’s just trying to get the attention to herself. Why do you need to come up with such an elaborate video for such a simple act?

Then, it suddenly dawned upon me that she was doing all of this to raise donations for cancer patients. It suddenly hit me that the step that she was taking was no small step at all. At least, I think that no one would just shave their heads and making a big deal out of it just for fun! I could start to appreciate the largeness and goodness of her heart to actually want to do something to help these groups of people who are suffering.

As I shared this with a friend, it struck me that, “Oh my gosh, God is just doing something amazing in this girl’s life, through this step of faith that she is taking.” And it truly reminded me once again that appearances definitely can be deceiving and that underneath the veil of her party life and the cover of her seemingly carefree attitude is a heart that desires to bring goodness and grace to people (Honestly, she was one of the people whom I least expect to be motivated to do such things for people, yet once again, I am proven wrong!).

I was left walking back home from university awestruck. In the back of my head for the whole time was the thought: Oh my gosh, Lord! You are truly awesome and you have amazed me yet again. I can’t think of any other words to say to you now but just…Wow…

Today was a good day indeed. I am reminded that deep within each individual lie seeds of goodness. In the core of each person is the innermost desire to see life and grace overflow. These things are most definitely not worked out by logic or reasoning, nor is it perceived by the physical senses. Rather, it is sensed by the spirit within us that resonates with the frequency of the Spirit of God that is at work in all of creation, in all individuals, bringing life and goodness through the most unlikely of people in the most unlikely of circumstances.

So the question that we should be asking is: Do we sense the Creator and his goodness at work all around us, through different people in various circumstances? And do we then grasp hold of that nudge or tingling of excitement that propels and moves us to believe in and be part of the amazing things that He is doing in our midst in individuals all around us?