Unexpected Lessons

One of the many things I've learned in the past 14 months or so, is this...everyone has the capacity to teach and to offer something other people can learn from.  Even the most unlikely folk has something to say that can penetrate to the deepest core of our being.  And a lot of the time, she doesn't even know she's done it.

I'm really humbled, to say the least, at how much I've learned about Grace and Love - how so undeserving I am, and how wide and expansive they reach and bend to envelope me and others who I couldn't possibly think should ever receive the blessings of their warmth in a grueling storm of life.

I've thought only those who have the same fire in their bellies for serving Christ can offer true Love.  And yet, I find myself a bit turned off at "religious speak" when it stands alone and without the touch of personal warmth and understanding, and real true self behind the words.

I can't stand being considered "religious" - I don't do anything religiously, except maybe go to the bathroom at the same time every morning and there are even days when I sleep in and break that habit, and then need special dispensation for my own religious habit.

I'm not any better than anyone else.  And no one is any better than me.  We are all human people struggling in this world.  We all have something to offer.  We all have the capacity to Love, even when we may not truly understand True Love and when we might not surrender ourselves to Him wholeheartedly - who really truly does, anyway?  I've heard of only one Man.

I am humbled to learn from the least of these and hope that I, too, offer some worth in my days, as I could be considered an unlikely source to learn from.

When I think about it, every one around me - Every. Single. Person - has added value to my life and I am who I am in a small (or perhaps big) way because of their influence on me and their fortitude to live genuinely themselves.  We really can learn a lot from each other...