A Time to Live Fully

I love the holidays for many reasons: the cooler weather, the excitement and energy of anticipation from the young as well as the young at heart, the music, the chocolate selection at the local wholesale club. Heck, I'll admit it I even enjoy the marketing! However, yesterday we had an experience that yanked me directly into the true spirit of the holidays and offered me some powerful reminders about living and loving.

We had just completed a stressful yet enjoyable bout of shopping and were pulling onto the highway out of the parking lot of the last store on our list. My mind was so occupied with thoughts of getting home safely and efficiently through the traffic, feeding a tired and hungry family of five and getting them into bed that I didn't pay attention to the man on the side of the road with a small cardboard sign that read "NEED HELP". I noticed him briefly, but I didn't pay attention to him. But Brian Jr., our seven-year-old, did. He instantly cried out, "It says 'help, help'! That man's sign says 'help, help'! We need to help him! Dad, stop! We need to help him!"

So, we immediately pulled back into the parking lot at the first opportunity, drove back through some traffic, and thought for a moment that we had lost him. We then spotted him a couple of rows away and parked safely while Brian Jr. burst out of the car, ran over to him, gave him a ten dollar bill, three chocolate truffles and a smile. As he ran back we saw the biggest smile on his face as he half ran, half skipped back to the car clapping his hands and literally jumping for joy.

What makes this all the more interesting to me is that this is the same boy that just a few minutes earlier was feeling very unhappy (after all, it had been a long day). Now, this same boy had found boundless happiness and energy.

This experience carries a couple of lessons or reminders for me:

1. Selfless service brings joy. There was no thought in my son's mind but serving that man and the instant he focused on filling the need of another his own discontent vanished;
2. Following our true north brings joy. How often do we hold back, play small and in general fail to live fully for fear of what someone else may think or say when our conscience is urging us to act on our true desires. Again, this was not a consideration for our boy. He wasn't worried about what all the onlookers thought, didn't come up with excuses for why it's inconvenient or not the right time or place. There was a need and he knew he could fill it, therefore he did.