Have you ever had the experience of someone out of your past reaching out to you unexpectedly?
It can be a call or an e-mail or a chat or even a letter - out of the blue. It can be surprising at first - after all, weeks or months or years or even decades can have gone by. As the conversation goes on, you begin to realize that the person reached out to you not because of a need they had - a situation, an encounter, a series of words - and the first person they thought of that could help them is you.
Do not be so concerned about this, suggests Nektarios in the above quote. Like a candle, you have somehow lit a way for them in times past and they believe you can do so again.
In our darkest hour we search for that which can comfort and illuminate, not necessarily that which is front and center. The humble remember that to be of great use to others does not always require being a constant focus of attention.
Or as past experience has shown me a down and out soul that is seeking a "loan" from you to help him carry on until he's "back on his feet".
ReplyDeleteBut as my Uncle Paul taught me, loaning to friends should be treated as a gift as seldom repaid and often the death of that friendship in any case.
Aside from that ill thought, I've spoken to many folks over the decades and comforted the dying often enough in my chosen career.
Those events are often as soothing to myself as the seeker.