I had a GREAT experience a few days ago. A person I’d been working with came up and said she just had to tell me something. “You told me something,” she said.
At this point I’m hoping I’d said something meaningful, or at least not stupid. She went on to say “You said that I’d be stronger next Spring when I’m in the garden. I just want you to know that you were right!
At this point I’m doing back flips in my heart because not only did I not say something stupid, but I’d actually said something that helped someone!
She continued, “I spent most of yesterday working in the garden, and I thought my back and legs would be really sore, like they usually are. You know what? I wasn’t sore at all! I just wanted you to know that.”
Wow. There it is. My reason for being. My purpose. And all her hard work paid off—she felt better and her life was better. And it’s kind of sweet to be right about something, once in a while, too!
Another woman was just talking to me about her husband. He’s in chronic pain all the time. She said I’d been an inspiration to him, and now he exercises most days. She said he’d all but given up before, and never would have left that chair. What she didn’t know, was that he really inspires me.
Like my friend Bob who came in a couple years ago, kicking and screaming. His wife basically dragged him in. Someone had told him he had the worst case of arthritis they’d ever seen (now that was saying something stupid), so he’d just given up.
He said he couldn’t do it, but I asked him to just try. So he got on the bike for just a minute—and ended up doing five. Over the next two years, he was a regular, working out twice a day! When he first came in, he was bent over, shuffling. In just a few months, he was walking with his chest held high. Though he went on to be with the Lord due to a serious heart condition and other complications, he’d inspired all of us every time we saw him.
And yesterday, another friend told me his knee had gotten hit by a forklift! It took the knee cap all the way around, and severed ligaments. They’d said he’d never walk without a brace, so consequently, insurance wouldn’t even pay for his rehab! He told me he’d joined a gym in Texas, paid $400 for the year, and worked on it himself! I’d of never known there was even a problem.
What do each of them have in common? They all did something about it. Yes, sometimes they had to be prodded a little bit—other times they had it inside that they weren’t giving up. But in each case, they worked it out, and to a person, they inspire me.
That woman I mentioned? I see her almost every day. And the husband? Him too. And Bob? It was twice a day. What are you doing?
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