Look Up!

I performed a social experiment last week. I was waiting in a long line for early voting and enjoyed some people watching as the line fed back and forth. One lady shared her entire phone conversation with the voting world. (She’s going on a cruise and we voters got the first take on ALL the plans for the weekend!) Others just stood in silence with no phone in hand. Some brought along real paper books and were actually reading. But most of the waiting audience was engrossed in their phones. Confounded by this pattern of phone behavior that I, was participating in as well, I put my phone in my purse and started a conversation with the young woman in front of me. 

It turned into a delightful conversation. She worked at a well-known resort in the area and had just got off work so she could vote. It didn’t take long to learn her about her waitress position at the resort and share some of the joys and sagas of waitress work. The time flew because all at once we were admitted to vote.

We will never know someone’s story unless we ask. We will never realize the power of encouragement, unless we give it. We will never understand the sadness on someone’s face, until we listen to the excruciating pain they’ve experienced. We will never know the simple connection we can make with someone, until we do. 

Our phones have captured our attention to the degree that we miss out on the people right in front of us. It takes intention to place our phones down and look up towards those around us. 

Get outside your world and encourage someone today. Not just those close to you, but someone you normally wouldn’t reach out to. Who can you encourage today? Use your life to ‘put courage in’ someone else. Inquire about them. Ask some questions. Encourage them! And listen really well. You have no clue what a change agent you’ll be.

“Let us not grow weary in doing good things.” Galations 6:9

“The lips of the righteous nourish many, but fools die for lack of sense.”Proverbs 10: 21

“Love more, not less. Will you take a hit? Of course you will. Do it anyway.” Bob Goff

 Nancy Abbott is the Chaplain of the YMCA of Greater San Antonio.