This day has been a long and laborious but certainly eventful day for me. I was part of four church services beginning at 7 am in a county jail this morning and was quite tired when I got home but a good tired. Met nearly one hundred men and women inmates this morning and saw many tears, many smiles, many hurting, many disappointed people which I seem to live in a sea of people like that. It is very interesting how my life has turned or shifted into areas where people that are struggling, pushing, wanting, etc, something better in their lives even though many, most, have shot themselves in the proverbial foot with very poor choices.
A television program I enjoy watching is "Charlie Rose" for he has great guests and I find him to be an excellent, incisive interview. In the link above is an abbreviated talk by David Brooks whom Rose was interviewing in his program I watched as Brooks was speaking to a group a couple of years ago. Brooks is an excellent writer for the New York Times and I find him very astute and well targeted in his writings. In watching him with Mr. Rose today in my time of tiredness from the rigor of my morning, my mind was captivated by what Brooks was discussing. At sixty-six years of age and still going strong, a Praise I wish to add, Brooks's thesis was that what we say or utter from our lips, means relatively little as to what we do, what we mean or how we affect life in the main but rather we are most impactful in our deeds and actions in what others see, say and do as a result of our actions. I realized, all over again, how very, very true that thesis truly is in my own life.
An example, small one but still an example, was this morning at the conclusion of a chapel service for thirty-five women. One was a young lady I learned was twenty-two years old from Massillon, OH and in jail for her fourth DUI. She came up to me before the deputies took her and the other inmates back to their pods to thank me for the chapel service, my singing and what my words meant to her. In our very brief conversations, learning she was in for Driving Under the Influence, I saw my own life bubble in being around alcholism and its horrific implication on families for generations. This young lady went onto tell me her mother is dying of alcohol poisoning and she, the girl, her daughter, is in jail for alcoholism and poor driving; sickened me at the heart to see this which I see week after week and much worse.
She then asked me if I taught at Kent State, which I did, for one of her high school heroes, a football star and former student of mind, had spoken of this tall guy with a Southern accent that taught him so much about life and values and did a lot of church work inside the jail. When I called out the student's name and the connection was made, I saw joy light up in her for that brief few moments before exciting to her cell. That moment when I was able to encourage her, to lift her with a few words based less on what I said in the chapel service but much more from the connection of a friend of hers talking about someone, me, she had no idea who I was other than the influence I had had on her friend; wow, see where I am going with this and Mr. Brook's astute thesis?
What we say is important in the near term? What we say with our actions and deeds has generational impact for our actions create institutional perspective of our purpose on this earth. God created each of us with and for a purpose but that purpose cannot be accomplished with mere words or symbols but rather by investment in human capital, challenge, taking difficult steps, doing the tough things when nobody else is around or watching; giving your best when best is potentially hazardous to health or reputation for it is the right thing to do!
That young lady from Massillon and the connection with a hero she knew from high school and that connection to me closed a circle of dots around she and I in a scant few moments but the power of worth in deed came flowing through my brain and my heart. How much and what we do must be brought to the microscope of history and future. Each of us are capable of making life for others much, much greater and better if we cast aside simply moving our lips as we push air through those lips to the greater need of investing out values, our heart, our drives, our hopes into actions for those around us.
This has all lifted me to a new level of worth for Man on this earth and on this day before the Easter celebration, that value for me resides and resounds on that Cross for my Jesus died for ME! It is my greatest hope that my true legacy will never be realized until generations of students, inmates, concert listeners, friends and family has move along their journey and affected thousands of others due to something I might have said, sung, prayer over, given myself for; none of this is about words for words or a means, not an end to human endeavor. Today, Jim Williams has learned something anew about this amazing thing called Life! I am so blessed!
No comments:
Post a Comment