From Geoffrey to you; Why

Wednesday June 24, 2009

Why

There is this little kid that is what you call a matata (trouble maker). He runs around and hits other kids. When you try to tell him to apologize he screams and wails as if he is the victim, even if you see him hitting and mistreating the other kids. He doesn’t seem to respect authority, if you tell him to sit he stands and if you tell him to stand up he sits. I see this little boy all of the time, he goes to our church and lives near me. He always joins in with the other children in screaming out “mzungu” and chasing after me to get my attention. This little boy has gotten under my skin a few times because of how he treats the other little kids and I think I know why.

It reminds me of the phrase, “hurting people hurt other people.” I know that I can be a beast if I am in a bad mood. When I was younger and going through my storm in life I hated school, didn’t have many friends and this was mainly because I treated them all so horribly. The reason I treated them all so horribly was because I was hurt myself and was angry at the world because of it. I’m not a shallow puddle, I am deep and the person you see today is the reflection of every moment, situation and experience of my entire life; our past forms us into who we are.

The mother of this child had apparently been seeking me out and managed to tract me down today. She told me her situation and the environment in which this boy has been raised in and it is no wonder that he acts the way he does. He has experienced a lot of pain and bad things, he is hurt.

Today I was reminded of a lesson that I learned a long time ago and that is that my heart needs to understand someone’s past before I look at their present. I need to approach the unapproachable with an open mind and understand that their whole life made them the way they are just like my whole life, both good and bad parts of it, has formed me into who I am today. We shouldn’t simply brush someone off because of their rough exterior, we need to be willing to dig in deep and ask “why.” Why are they this way? Why do they behave that way? Why are they so angry or sad?

I think I also need to be reminded that people can change and lives can be transformed. I know I wasn’t much to look at six years ago but I am proud of who I am now and that is because I had people stop and ask why I acted the way I did and were willing to dig deep in me. We never really know the potential of the person that we brush off and walk past. Imagine where we would be in life if everyone kept on walking and no one was willing to dig in deep and ask why.

My hope is that I would be willing to stop and ask why, instead of walking past and brushing someone off.

Please pray for Janet, she is having her operation today.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 25th, 2009 at 2:02 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.