[a philosophy of faith]

Roll Away Your Stone

“Love it will not betray you, Dismay or enslave you, it will set you free
Be more like the man you were made to be..”

This week I’ve found this song lyric to almost cease to exists in humanity. Now,  I know that’s a very hasty generalization but FOR THE MOST PART it’s very true. Canvassing, even though it’s only been 2 days, is most definitely an eye opener. People are no longer loving, nor are they welcoming. I can see how cold and heartless our society has become.

My second day of canvassing really taught me a lot of life lessons. Although I have stated that humanity is no longer loving or warm hearted as before, my faith in humanity has not been shaken. There are people I have met, and moments I have lived these past 2 days that restore my hope in humanities ability to care for one another. “For whoever does not love their brother and sister whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen” 1 John 4:20 This verse resonated through my mind as I went out that Thursday morning, and honestly I’ve never found it so hard to brush off a complete strangers rejections.

Door after door people wouldn’t even give me the time of day, they’d just slam the door in my face. But as I was about give up on PEOPLE, I met this woman who changed my life.

Wanda Clark, seems like a normal person and she most definitely is yet the “divine encounter” we had on Thursday was far from normal. I walked up to the door, knocked and waited for someone to open. As a few seconds passed I herd the jingle of the door,and a face appeared. She then proceeded to open the screen door and I could already tell that this house was going to be yet another rejection. But I decided to canvass her any way. So I began to canvass Ms.Clark, but she continued to repeat, “NO, NOT INTERESTED.” Like a good canvasser, I didn’t give up and continued to tell her about our organization, but she shot down each one of my rebuttals. So there. That was the end, I knew I couldnt win with this woman. Just before she could shut the door on me I got these words out, “M’am before you slam the door on my face, do you mind if I pray with you before I go?”  Just a few simple words that I had constantly repeated to each person at each door I went to, nothing special really..You never really understand the power of words until something like this happens to you.

All of a sudden this woman, Ms.Clark, began to cry! All I could think of was, “OMG, what the heck did I do! CRAP CRAP CRAP!!” I stared for a little, then I heard Ms.Clark say, “Come in come in..” I walked into her porch and she apologized, she continued to sob and shared her troublesome day with me. Turns out she was going through a tough time, life was not cooperative with her. She had everything she ever wanted, a nice house, a nice car, a great job what more could you ask for. But she felt fearful, paranoid,   not a peace with her self. Almost as if a small war was going on in her heart. 

I befriend Ms.Clark, let her know that although I was a student trying to get donations for my college education, my goal wasn’t to sell her books but to befriend her. I went on and shared a little bit of my life with her. My goals, my family life and my current spiritual struggles. It was probably the craziest 30min of my life, sharing my life story with a complete stranger. We exchanged emails, I promised to write her from Kazakhstan and email her with updates about my life. 

This is just one of the many experiences that I’ve had canvassing these two days. I began the day with rejection after rejection then BAM I met a woman who now has influenced my perception on life. There are few instances you get as a young person to truly met someone who changes your life and likewise you change theirs. There are a lot of people who are misunderstood in this world, their fear builds walls and our misunderstanding ostracizes them. I came to realize that there has been no true love shown in this world, that we’re missing LOVE. Now I’m talking about true love, with out borders, barriers and no conditions. The reason our world is so cold, is because we’ve never seen a love like the one Jesus gave us. We’re constantly too busy or “NOT INTERESTED” when we’re offered that LOVE. People need to see other people capable of that love, not that it’s just a fairy tail or a tall tail. 

“Serve wholeheart-edly , as if you were serving the Lord, not the people, because  you know that the Lord will reward each one for whatever good they do..”

Ephesians 6:7-8