From Chicago to Leipzig: Perspective

Sunday is study day for me and my friends: Allie, Carly and Chesney. Its leggings, big sweater, study day.

Today was no different. We headed out of our rooms in our study day attire and hopped on the 66 bus to the get off at Eerie. I am sitting at the Panera as I type. Maybe i should be doing homework, but I thought you needed to read this...or maybe I needed to write it and get it down for myself. A new perspective..on people in life.

I sat on the 66 bus next to Allie, and two guys in front of us. Let's be realistic, we tend to listen to people's conversations (though we know its impolite) while we are sitting on the bus, el or where-have-you. So today, i did just that. This man, a younger man, was on the phone with some friends i assumed.

"Yeah, I am on the bus, I will be there soon........yeah man, like 30 seconds" they hang up.

I watch to see where he gets off and to see if his said friend was waiting for him at the stop. As he got off i watched him and alas...they were! The man and his friends gave a friendly hug and began to walk and talk.

Maybe this moment shouldn't have hit me as it did, but its fine!

I sat and thought, huh that guy i heard that he was meeting friends and I saw him meet his friends then they disappeared around the corner as my body jerked with the bus movement. Never again will i see that man. But, i was sitting on the bus with him for a good amount of time and didn't say anything. Pretty normal, right? But why? I am not a mean person and he probably wasn't either by the way he greeted his friends.

This moment just had me thinking, people walk in and out of our lives thousands of times a day and we have NO idea who they are or what is going on in their lives. I thought well why judge people, i dont know what made them react that way to me, maybe they have a rough home, or they broke up with their fiance or maybe their best friend is no longer around..life happens. As a disciple of Jesus, I should be shining the LIGHT OF JESUS to all i pass by. I do not want to leave an impression on someone that leaves the taste of 3 week old milk in their mouths. We all have those moments. "Oh my goodness..you should have seen it.. this super creepy guy was staring at me on the bus." "That girl was SO rude to me. What's her problem?"

Now, don't get me wrong, people do these things and its weird and awkward, but I don't want to be that rude girl or be that person who sits and looks back at people with a bad taste in my mouth. We are all beings of THE Creator and we all deserve grace and we all deserve to see some light in a day that may have left a bad taste in our mouths.

Yesterday me and my friends went out in the city and took pictures with balloons. Just having fun being girls and loving life. I don't know how many times people took pictures of us that we did not know. I know of at least 5 or 6. But, people would smile and laugh with and at us. We just were care free and 5 girls carrying around colorful balloons in a city filled with black coats and dirty snow. Maybe we were seen as "those weird kids" but we definitely brought smiles to peoples faces and some brightness (light) to a dark city. I want to learn to do that in every day life with the people who walk in for a few seconds of my life. I want them to see color in a dark world. To see a glimpse of Jesus, whether or not they know what they are seeing or why they are seeing it, they smile...just like out balloon photo shoot.

BALLOON BASH 2.25.12

Maddie. Ches. Me.