When I arrived home today I was informed the Nigel had passed away. For those of you I have told the story of how we met and the subsequent proposal, this might not surprise you. He lived a hard life and I was witness to this. A little over a month ago I stopped seeing Nigel as much. He stopped coming over and started spending more time in his house. The few times that I did see him, he didn't look good at all, and I knew that something was wrong. I almost went to see him a few times, and I almost went to go check on him, I also almost asked him if there was anything that I could do for him, but I didn't. In the book of John it says that the world will know we are God's disciples by our love (13:35). What if we choose to do the selfish thing and not show love. What if we decide that I am more important right now than anyone else. You see, Nigel died a lonely death because no one, myself included, showed love to a man who was sending all those obvious signals of help that we are supposed to be looking for. They were simply ignored. There is a hope inside all true believers that goes beyond all hardships, pain, suffering, stress, the list goes on and on. What I saw was a man whose hope had faded, and instead of telling him of the hope of Christ, I literally watched him die. What will it take for us to quit tearing down someone with words, actions, or even apathy, no matter the offense, big or small, against us and start building up.......HOPE.
Maybe it takes the death of a hopeless man for us to realize the severity of this game of life that we are playing.
Tomorrow put hope into someone.
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