Sparklers at Midnight 3.29.26

I was sitting at a funeral yesterday...

and the whole time they kept saying "he was so faithful... he kept the faith to the end."

And I wanted to feel inspired by that.

But I didn't.

Then a woman named Alma stood up.

He and his wife had brought her to the U.S from Guatemala years ago and brought her into their family.

She told a story about him getting her out of bed at midnight on Christmas Eve without any of the other kids...

He brought her outside to light sparklers together.

This was a simple tradition where she came from and for a young girl so far from home… this MEANT everything.

THAT got me.

Not his titles or the lists of every great achievement he had.

Just this one story that said more about who he was than anything else that was said up there.

I sat there thinking...

when it’s MY turn... what are people going to say?

I dont care what roles I played or what institutions I was loyal to...

but did I actually see the people in front of me?

Did I stop long enough to light the sparklers?

There is a moment in Matthew 25 where God is separating people at the judgement day...

and the ones who make it are not the ones who checked every box and did everything “right”.

They are the ones who saw a hungry person and fed them.

Saw a stranger and invited them in.

Saw someone hurting and stopped.

It is that simple.

The people God points to, it says were actually “surprised”. They didn't realize they were doing something big...

they were just paying attention to who was right in front of them.

That is the whole thing.

Not the institutions. Not the titles. Not the callings.

Are we serving the people right in front of us?

Our wives. Our kids. Our friend who hasn't called in a while.

Someone in your world today is hungry for something...

and most of the time it will not be food.

They are looking for someone to actually see them.

Stay in the fire and never stop progressing. — Braven Grant