Thoughts on the way to school...

Well, here I am on my way to school…up before the sun is and I’m especially tired. Usually, this would make me sluggish, sleepy and cranky, but not today…because I am still pumped from yesterday’s Attic with the Downtown Toronto Meeting House at Yonge Street Missions Evergeen! What is The Attic you might ask? Well, it’s a time when our community gets together to praise God. There’s lots of music and singing and time for prayer. It’s an awesome time for people to connect with God and each other. Yesterday, I had the privilege of being part of the team that led the music for the evening. It was AH-mazing!  FAN-TAS-TIC! I had the best time! 

I love to sing. I love to worship God through song. There’s something about music that soothes my soul. It connects me to God and those around me in a way like nothing else. But, as much as I love to use music as a way to worship God, worship is not singing. Worship is not songs. Worship is an action; it is a lifestyle choice. 

At the Attic, we took some time to pray for the city of Toronto. We live in this amazing, multi-cultural, wildly unique city where we have people from around the world all gathered together in one space. It’s a pretty neat place to call home. Yet, there is so much suffering, sadness and brokenness that goes unnoticed by our society. We prayed and chatted together about ways that we can make a difference in our city. There are some super practical things that we can do every day that can make a difference. Easy things, simple things, stuff we can do even as we pass by strangers on the way to places of work, school or wherever you may find yourself. For one, simply…smile.  That’s it. Just smile.  

It may sound cheesy, but a small smile goes a long way. Look up as your walking around the city doing your daily routines. It seems that as a society, we are so busy, worried or even too afraid to look around and see who shares the space we inhabit. I’m telling you, smile and people will smile back. And even if they don’t, you never know what it might inwardly mean to them. Some other simple things could be holding the door for someone, giving up your seat on the streetcar or helping someone who’s having trouble keeping balance on the subway (that one might just be me). Trust me when I say that it’s appreciated.  

As I’m writing this, I just had a perfect opportunity to put these words into practice…but I missed it. There was a girl on the train who dropped her pass. There was a guy standing close by who I assumed would bend down and pick it up for her. He didn’t.  What’s the problem with this picture? I’ll give you a hint; it’s not the guy who didn’t pick up the pass. It was me. I assumed that this other person would take responsibility. I need to stop doing that.  We need to stop doing this. If you see a Mom with a stroller trying to get on the streetcar, don’t wait for someone else to help her out. It you see an older gentleman struggling with a cane or wheelchair to get through a door, don’t wait for someone else to hold it open for him. And when someone drops their pass on the train, well Mandie, assume responsibility and pick it up! Even if five other people bend down and try to help at the same time and everyone feels a little silly or bumps heads trying to get to the pass first, that girl who dropped it is going to smile and appreciate the fact that so many people stopped to help her out.  

If these are things that you’re already doing in your daily lives, then kudos to you! Let’s talk about what more we can do. I know that I am guilty, very guilty and ashamed of this next one. How many of us see people on the streets asking for money or food and we pull up our coat collars and walk on by like we never saw them? I know that I do and it’s something that I’m not proud of. Maybe last year I might have tried to give you an excuse or not even tell you that I’m guilty of this, but this year I’m trying this new thing called authenticity…but we’ll save that for another morning. Back to the person we just passed on the street. Are we really so busy that we can’t pick up a coffee for that person as we get our own on the way to the office? Are we really so quick to judge that we automatically assume the worst of the person selling newspapers outside the grocery store that we don’t buy him some dinner as we’re picking up our own? Shame on us. Shame on me. Let’s do something about this.  Let’s start some change.  Let’s make a difference.  

Well, I’m in my 8:00am class now…yay me, I made it on time! If you’ve read this to the end, thanks so much for taking time out of your day to read my morning thoughts. This blog is still in its very beginning creations stages, so stay tuned! Let’s see what happens next!

Mandie