You had a bad day...

I had a terrible week.

To name just a few things: I got hit in the head with a ball two times in a row during gym and my glasses got bent and jammed painfully into my face; I walked out of school with my lock in my hand and didn't even notice; I realized that I had lost my SECOND Romeo and Juliet book of the semester; I managed somehow to jab my eye with a water bottle; and, to top it off, I practically failed my math summative, partially because I forgot to put my calculator on "degrees" mode. There goes 10% of my mark!

Sigh...

As you can imagine, I wasn't exactly in the best mood. I opened my Bible that evening, and I readily confess that it was really out of a nagging sense of duty, rather than out of my love for God. But God never misses a chance to speak to someone who needs Him, even they don't come to Him with a particularly open heart.

I opened to a page in Matthew, and as I looked at it, I thought: "I've read this so many times already... what new lesson could I possibly learn from it?" (hey, I told you I was in a bad mood!). But before I could turn to a different book, Someone led my eyes to Matt. 14:10-14.

It described Jesus finding out about John the Baptist's death. Deeply saddened, Jesus "withdrew to a desolate place by himself," probably to mourn and pray. But then, the people began to come.

They brought the sick to Him and he healed them.
They told Him their problems and sins, and he listened with love and compassion.
Their numbers grew and grew, until there were 5000 there. Then He fed them all.

And that made me think.

Jesus was feeling a lot worse than I was -- after all, failing a math summative doesn't even come close to having one of your best friends die. And yet, when the needy came to Him, he did so much for them... even though he probably wasn't in the mood for socialising!

Whereas I, with my insignificant little problems, really did nothing for others except complain to them. I was so full of self-pity that I seemed to forget that other people existed too, and had problems of their own that I could help them with.

That really struck a chord with me, and to anyone reading, I just want to say:

It doesn't matter how bad life is going for you... nothing can prevent you from doing good.