Contagious Kindness
Just wanted to share with you an encouraging story that just happened this morning! You know that we walk every morning for exercise around our block and say good morning/wave to 10-30 people every morning. I was reaching the intersection at the top of the hill and a Safeway truck with a delivery driver waved me down. I thought that he might have needed to find an address and wanted to ask for directions. I walked up to the window and this African American man timidly asked me if I lived here and I said yes.
He went on to tell me how he noticed the last few weeks as he was making deliveries on our hill how I would greet my neighbors and stop to talk to everyone. He said he wanted to let me know how special this was and it wasn’t something that he normally saw. He then went to say how he is an introvert but felt inspired to start connecting with his neighbors. He said he just felt like he wanted to stop, tell me this and ask how my day and pregnancy was going. I immediately felt in my spirit that he was a Christian so decided to take a chance and asked. He said yes, he loved Jesus and was listening to Christian radio right now during his deliveries. We had to say goodbye because others vehicles were trying to pass by but we exchanged names and I said God bless you and thanks for sharing.
Why is this encounter so amazing to me? This is the first time in almost 9 years that I’ve had something this unique happen. I had never interacted with him personally, no wave, no good morning, no conversation. He had simply noticed me doing this with others. Not only that, he felt inspired and started to do the same, all without me knowing. We teach about the power of presence and continuing to “just keep showing up” but this encounter illustrated so clearly that being present, visible and intentionally connecting can make a huge impact. We may not think that people are watching or even know that people are watching but they are watching. How many people have we influenced without even knowing? I’m just so thankful that God allowed me to see through this interaction.
So encouraged and hope that this encourages you too! Jen