Priviliged

“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”
Plato (427 BC - 347 BC)

In our culture, weakness has been bundled with our picture of the spiritual person. As if pursuing spiritual matters is for those who have retired from ambition. Those who have given up their strength and critical mind for a fantasy life. So, for many of us, our spiritual lives look like the emaciated and war-torn. We have third-world spirits.

I believe deeply in kindness as it puts a familiar face on nothing less than Love, the greatest power in the universe. Who of us needs less kindness in our lives?

I had the privilege of caring for one of God’s children the other night. Half blind, scared and smelling of urine, he was lost in my neighborhood. I got to spend about 45 minutes with him as we looked for his sisters’ house. He had made a couple of wrong turns walking home from the store and darkness fell before he could figure it out.

A gentle person, burdened with more than any of us could imagine. Rejected by this efficient world, he seemed positive. he had faith, and I didn’t hear a hint of blame or bitterness. Heroic passage through a world that holds nothing for him, to a place that holds everything.

Why me, I thought, why did I get to experience this gift? We shared kind words and encouragement, as each of us is fighting a hard battle, it became clear to me, that he occupies a place on the battlefield that requires far greater strengths and skills than any I possess.