What does it take to be noticed?

Have you ever encountered someone you perhaps wanted to reach? In other words, you simply wanted that person’s attention. I am not talking about undivided attention like a puppy or small child tugging at your pant leg but perhaps less of a thought: like a phone call, an email, or even a simple, genuine “How are you today?” When do people, including myself, become so busy that we forget that other people just exist? We look over our fellow human beings as if we are better than them? I think homeless people are a classic example. In a downtown area, you might walk past a homeless person without even making eye contact. Sometimes I feel that homeless people do not make eye contact because society perpetuates this idea that being homeless is something shameful. I guarantee that any homeless person would prefer to be in a different position than on the streets, but sometimes because of reasons unknown to surface level judgments, people are homeless because it is unavoidable. It is the cards that were dealt. I do not think anyone actively chooses to be homeless; they may just have no other choice because a run of bad luck has been encountered, or perhaps adversity in overwhelming forms exists in fashions beyond what you or I can understand.

Shane Claiborne is an advocate and Christian philanthropist in the streets of Philadelphia. The name of his organization is known as the The Simple Way (http://www.thesimpleway.org/shane/). He wrote an incredible book entitled Irresistible Revolution. If you are looking for a good read, I would highly recommend it. He is also often a guest writer on a blog entitled God’s Politics (http://blog.sojo.net/author/shane_claiborne/). His entries deal with what some may consider radical ideas concerning Christianity and modern day politics and controversy. While you may consider some of his thoughts to be out there in space, you may also find some unique truth to the injustices that he so frequently points out. Mr. Claiborne’s intentions through his blog might be to get your attention, to make you think, to make you uncomfortable with sitting on the couch for a weekly weekend leisure activity, to possibly get out and make a difference, and ultimately to become something more than your self-inclined natures would lure you to be.

I have been keeping up with a friend from Auburn who joined Grace Campus Ministries to implement and drive forward a ministry in China. His blog, College Rambling, (http://collegerambling.blogspot.com/) has always certainly been one of my favorites while attending Auburn. His latest entry on January 24, 2010 speaks of an encounter with a homeless person in Hong Kong. If you read it, tears may well up at the reaction of the women to his kindness in his giving nature. In fact, he not only has a miraculous story to tell us. He has a small treasure to take home as a result. When you do something for other people, the clear lesson is that you may very well be pleasantly surprised at what you get in return. It may not always be a sense of just self-gratification for thinking of someone besides yourself. It may be an unlikely reaction that touches your heart for the rest of your life.

Another blog by one of my favorite people is Life as We Know It by Matt Dean (http://mattdean.blogspot.com/). Matt Dean is the director of Grace Campus Ministries, the largest ministry that recently held the praise and worship gathering each week in Auburn known as Encounter. He was called to China; so he and his team left to go there. I highly respect this man, and I believe he is making an amazing impact on a global scale. While his blog also has the potential to touch lives in a different capacity than Micah’s, Matt often uses his blog to update the external world on how a family such as his is doing in new life encountered in Hong Kong. He likes to let us know how he is doing and that he is alive and well.

So my professor’s question is this: What are blogs used for? I hope that some blogs are meant to make us laugh. Others are meant to make us think and analyze relevant issues, but I believe the blogs I have included are meant to do much more. They are meant to spread the Word in a message of Hope. They are meant to inspire through simple words and simple pictures. Words become more than just a blog. They become alive in the stories they tell. In the progress that I make with each new blog entry, I also hope to do the same as I seek to become an author and professional speaker. I seek to inspire and become selflessly more so that I may give to others when I have been given so much in relation to my own blessings. My goal is to reject my own selfishness so that I may become more like Someone I will follow for all of my days.

For me, I use my blog to process, write, and express modern, contemporary thoughts with relevant issues in everyday life. One might also say that I witness through my blog with those who may be seeking spiritual direction. Of course, like almost every blog, I use my blog to illustrate a journal’s worth of ideas on real experiences. I write. I create. I vent. I cry. I sweat. I blog to express what makes me human, the fact that I am an ordinary person who feels ordinary things. So, perhaps next time someone seems like they need to talk, give them a minute to talk. Next time someone goes out of their way to help you, acknowledge the fact they helped you with true gratefulness. Maybe even do something in return; that might be a novel concept for self-indulgence….to do something for other people. If someone allows you to edge in so you can merge into traffic on a road, wave to acknowledge a simple thank you. Open your eyes. Reject tunnel vision focusing on you and only your own problems, and realize the world is a beautiful place to live in and to inhabit with thousands of opportunities to give in more ways than you yourself can imagine.

Click here for Shane's blog, God's Politics.

Click here for Micah's blog, College Rambling.

Click here for Matt Dean's blog, Life as We Know It