Your Robots Have Hearts.

"Stopped at the red light, looked out my window

Outside the car, saw a sign, said 'Help this homeless widow'
Just above this sign was the face of a human"

Those are some of the lyrics to Michael West's new song "My Own Little World".  This song, among other things, truly motivated me to think about how I see people. I work at a sub shop, make sandwiches, ring people out, correct mistakes, and take whatever comments that customers have with a happy face.  All the while, I am a person with passions, dreams, and most of all, feelings.  Now, I don't really care if a customer yells at me because I'm not close to them and  if they don't like me, I can deal.  On the other hand, I have some regulars that completely make my day because of their kindness and interest in my life.

But how many times have I, with the thought that a store's employee is like a robot, hurt someone or judged someone, or even just not shown love to someone?  How many times have I gone through the motions of picking up an order or buying a new shirt and not seen what Jesus sees in the person who helped me? I would say, most of the time I move past with no regard to the fact that every person in the world is a God-created masterpiece with a heart longing for something bigger than themselves. I'm not saying that I'm completely rude to every person that I meet but I'm saying that it's not showing love if all I am doing is not being rude, it's only showing love if I can go beyond what anybody normally does and truly love how Jesus would.

This isn't just about store employees either. As the song talks about a homeless woman. How do we treat people with love when we've stereotyped them from the beginning? There's a homeless woman that always stands on the same corner by my work. I've always seen her as the homeless woman, nothing more. Inside of her though, there's a dream and a desire to live a better life.

The third thing that triggered all of these thoughts was the movie, "To Save A Life" (amazing, go rent it, watch it, and do something about it).  It blew my mind. I can't tell you how many people I've passed by that were alone, or how many people I've shrugged off because they weren't in my "group". What if, I was their last hope? I want to pour hope into people but to do that, I need to be open to anyone and everyone. Not just open enough for them to come to me, but open enough for me to make an effort to create relationship with them.  It's going to be my goal to create friendships at SPU that I would not normally think of creating.  It's time to step out of my comfort bubble and make an impact on the lives near and far from me.

So my challenge for me, and possibly for you, is to see people for who they are in Christ. See if you can break down some walls in people's lives. And realize that everyone has feelings, dreams, and backgrounds that you can't see on the surface. Find the goals that they have and bring them closer to reaching their goals in love.