The power of doing small, ordinary attempts is that it can start a movement.  Everyone can play.  Everyone wants to.  This is an example of someone doing something doable, invisible, and anonymous.  This was so powerful that it continued to be passed on by each recipient for nearly five hours.

Spread the joy this Christmas season.  Do what’s doable.

Here’s the link to the story: LINK

by Bethany Spanier

Yesterday I had a doctor’s appointment that I showed up to on time at the start of their afternoon yet still had to wait 20 minutes before getting seen. So as I sat in a much-too-quiet waiting room, I chose to not bury my nose in a magazine but instead try to notice the people around me. I first noticed that I was the only patient in the waiting room, so I noticed the receptionist.

She was a brown-eyed girl in her twenties with long dark hair. She wore blue scrubs and had a nice manner with people on the phone. She hadn’t quite finished her lunch as I could hear the crunch of chips behind the wall she would retreat to to grab a quick bite. She looked coworkers in the eyes when she spoke with them and the patients as well as they finally started to file in.

I had to take rather quick glances because she was mindful of my presence in the waiting room as well and I was trying to avoid that awkward mutual glance … the one when you both accidentally look at each other at the same time without meaning to and then with embarrassment, quickly revert your eyes back the floor.

As other patients sat down, I noticed them as well. The silence was never broken by any of us and felt similar to standing quietly in an elevator with people. But at least for 20 minutes of my day I was intentionally thinking of and noticing others – giving my mind a break from the hours of thought revolved around myself =)

by Heather Phillips

In the past couple of years a change has been occurring within me. I used to be (and often still am) a judgmental sort of person. I started noticing myself having negative judgmental feelings toward others who were doing something unsafe such as riding a motorcycle without a helmet, or speeding and passing unsafely while driving.

My natural response to this would be to get angry, and think that the person would “get theirs” by ending up in an accident – so obviously not a very Jesus-like response.

Then one day while I was driving and a young man on a motorcycle popped a wheelie on I-95, I realized that if Jesus were seeing this person he’d want to show love, not judgment. All of us are guilty of using bad judgment somewhere in our lives; and we wouldn’t others to think worse of us, or judge us unfairly because of it.

So, instead of giving vent to my negative feelings of how stupid my fellow man could be, I prayed that God would keep the young man safe. I do that now whenever I see an unsafe situation people are involved in. The people I pray for may never know it. However, I believe it makes a difference not only for them, but it has been transforming me from the somewhat self-righteous person I was to someone who cares about people whether she knows them or not.