I was walking down the hall at school the other day right as a fight was being broken apart. The one person left from the brawl was a slightly heavy-set guy with a soaked face. That's right people- he was crying. Now, this kid had to have been in 11th grade- a big boy and, with his size, slightly intimidating. Looking at his face, I knew exactly what had been the spark of the fight-he was getting picked on about his weight and size. Walking down the hallway and seeing his face doused in tears had an effect on me. I'm not sure what it was pity, sympathy, empathy, or maybe even guilt, all I knew was that by looking in his face something happened inside of me. I continued to walk down the hall to my class with the thoughts of this tear-faced guy implanted in my brain. As I sat in class that day, the lecture on Harry Truman and space exploration was given little attention to as this face remained in my head. Why was this person I didn't even know having such a major toll on my thoughts? I've never met him, and for all I know, might never. I sauntered out of school that day, still in my own little world, not sure about anything that had happened that day. I sat in the car on the ride home, headphones in, thinking, "God, what's the significance of this? Why is this such a big deal?" Thoughts loomed through my head the rest of the way home of what the reason behind these feelings could be. Later on, I told someone about the events that aroused that day. Although they couldn't quite understand why the whole scenario was such a big thing to me because they hadn't experienced the feeling inside that I had when looking into this person's eyes. A few days later, I received a text from the person I told saying that they had something to tell me about the incident in the hallway. Me, being curious to know some insight on the ordeal, asked what they had concluded. Compassion. Compassion is what I had felt in the hallway that day. But why compassion for someone I didn't even know? And why was compassion an emotion that had suddenly rushed into my system, wasn't it already there? Compassion.... So, I sit there wondering about this insight; wanting a slightly clearer and better explanation for this reasoning. Then a flood of text messages flooded my inbox. God had given me these feelings towards the event, not to confuse me, but to allow me recognize an area I had dealt with Him on- hurt. God wasn't showing me this to judge the other person by, but to show discernment and empathize with them, help them, or even just to pray for them. I sat there reading through those messages over and over again, wondering what the significance of knowing this was. Then it hit me. God was using this whole experience to grow me in areas that I fully believe will be needed as apart of my calling. Not only was this a major time in my life, but it was also a huge piece to the puzzle of my calling God's slowly been putting together for me. This event, as little as it may seem to the unwatching eye, was much larger in importance than it appeared to me. So, now I'm faced with the question of "God, how do you want me to use this?"
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