Never Give Up - This is Why

We don't know what lies ahead.

This is a true story of the way a stranger did something very small to lift my spirits on a day when I needed it. 

I keep a journal and May 1, 2010 I wrote that "Yesterday was a day full of blessings."  I went on to say that my car had been giving me trouble so I stopped at my garage just before lunch time and the mechanic and his wife fixed the problem and never charged me a penny.  I also ordered some pizza's and they made large instead of medium like I ordered, so I got a deal there.  I had a nice phone call from someone to thank me for a donation I had made.  These were all small things, but they made me feel good.  When you are down and out, the smallest things can make your day.

But I also went by the local Garden Center where I usually shopped for plants or birdseed and had not been too impressed by the service lately, but I bought some bags of mulch and had to drive around back to pick them up.  That is where I met John (not his real name), an older man, who began talking to me while he loaded my bags of mulch into the Tahoe and he told me how he didn't get weekends off now.  He had lost his job a few years ago making $15 an hour which he used to think wasn't much, but he does now.  He saw the little plant I had bought sitting on my front seat and asked what it was. I went on to write this in my journal: "He rents somewhere and does a little yard work, and keeps thinking maybe one day he'll be someplace better, but doubts it.  He went on and on and it made me realize I'm not alone.  Others (pay rent and) plant gardens that don't really belong to them."

John wasn't doing too well, and his story made me feel less alone that day.  But John never found the hope that I found and I guess he never put his faith in God because this past year he committed suicide.  I heard about it from my landlady's daughter who was working at the store at that time.

What this story tells me is that even when you don't think you are doing any good in this world, you may be and just don't know it.  God gives us each day - because He does.  If you wake up breathing, then you have a day to live.  It may be boring, dull and unhappy.  It may be a miserable life that you can't see an end to, but along the way you may be doing more good than you could ever see, just by living your life.

The tapestry is being woven and you are part of it.  If you kill yourself, your thread ends, and that effects the overall design.  Believe it.