People

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"Not Out Here"

Here at Christmas time, may we remember those less fortunate than we are...It is often only through personal deprivation that we come to understand the true meaning of loss or sacrifice...May we remember those who through no fault of their own, or even perhaps their own fault, and make life at least just a little better for those who have less than we do or have a real or potential need...

May we have the mind, heart, and hands of Our Lord and help others in need...

In the local area where I live, I recently had an interaction in which I saw the face of those in the midst of losing their jobs, security, and futures...My heart aches for the ones who are faced, as are many, in our country in these perilous times with difficulties that seem to be insurmountable...

When I looked into the face of a man as I was standing in the parking lot of a downsizing company, he told me when I said to him that it would get better said to me "Not Out Here"...My heart ached for his loss and his despair...My prayers and personal efforts are with him and others who but for the grace of God could be me or my children...

May we remember that this is always true -- for we are all human and therein lies the potential that we can face the very same perils in this life...

May you be touched in your moments of reading the poem I wrote after I looked into this man?s face and heard his words "Not Out Here"...


Not Out Here


There are those who find themselves

On the back-side of life's desert

And wonder where things went wrong --

They seek in the midst of struggle

How they too can be strong --

They find that the manna

They have for this season of time

Is quite different than yours and mine --

They find that they wonder

If they too will find their way

And if their needs and the needs

Of those they love

Will be met from day to day --

They find they are in a dry-land time

And it is here they wonder if their blessings

Will arrive like yours and mine --

It could be that but for God's grace

We would be the ones with peril to face --

May we remember even at this time of year

That each time God's children hurt

He too is touched and sheds a tear --

Not out here a man on the back side of the desert

Said to me when I looked into his face --

It was then I was reminded that he could be

Me or my children but for God's grace --

Here at Christmas-time may we remember

Those less fortunate than you and me --

May we pray for them and hold ourselves to account

For all we obligingly see --

Today I cried a tear as I looked into the face

Of the man who said to me Not out here

For with my consoling words

I could only imagine that from God's eye

He too shed a tear...©

Juanita Pittman-Brown

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