Dear my friend,
Today I met a common friend of us, and he handed me this amazing gift of you. It made me laughed. It was funny because the guy had no idea that I didn’t ask you for it, so he didn’t say who sent it, yet right at the moment I saw it, I knew right away it was you.
I did really appreciate it and how you try to care for me. But let’s face it, it can do me no benefit, can’t it? Yet, somehow it’s not very surprise to me, after two years we stayed together, you always seemed to be the cool one. You cared for people, yet never showed it, you wanted to always play it cool, acted as you didn’t care, and eventually you made it a funny cheesy thing.
That’s how our ideology is different.
I can never understand that! Maybe you think showing care is a cheesy and useless thing. But let’s face it, isn’t it the same as a pack of raw curcumin sent across the continent 3 days after one’s sickness? I can see that everyone has their own problems and difficult situations, and they cannot be solved just by saying. Bystanders, friends, or family members no matter how much they care for you, couldn’t do you a single good for whatever problem you have, unless they’re somewhat the expert. Then not all of life problems can be solved by an expert, some must be faced and solved by you alone.
Yet, after those years, you made me think that for you, either it’s a workable solution or it’s nothing at all. You never accepted encouragement and never gave me once.
I am fully aware that encouragement, for most of the time, doesn’t directly solve any problem, just as praying. Yet, don’t you agree that they can help fixing mental issues and get us back on our feet, to then face and solve them ourselves?
It’s a bit funny to me, that you rather wait and send a raw pack of curcumin across the contient 3 days after my sickness rather checking me once in a while. And you would want the same thing instead of having my prayers, if I offer you so. But rest assured that I am offering prayers for you and your newly created family everyday, and I truly believe that in a way we cannot immediately see, it does you more good than you can expect.
Still, don’t you think saying a word of encouragement is cheaper than sending a pack of curcumin across the continent? At least you don’t have to buy it, and you can say it anytime, anywhere (of course with the internet), instead of waiting for someone on their way from there here? Yet, a word of encouragement is still luxurious compared to praying. You don’t even need internet for that.
You see, we people usually misjudge things that we don’t see. What if we’re not just connected in time and space alone? Put aside religious ideology, haven’t we heard much of those cases of soldiers going out to battles bringing love from people back home and how it helps them along their ways? God’s love is even more effective than that. He sees everything, He is everywhere, and He is love itself. What if we are not only connected in time and space but also in love and prayers?
This reminds me of a French guy who was in Ireland during the incident of Notre Dame de Paris being on fire. He said something like this “I saw it on TV and desperately wanted to do something to help. But I didn’t know what to do. It’s too far away.” My immediate thought at that moment was “Well, even those who are living in Paris can do nothing (of course unless they are firefighters or the authority)”. Admittedly, if we only limit ourselves to physical supports, there’s nothing much we can do in most problems to those we care. I’m not saying physical supports are not important. The thing is we are used to thinking that space and time is the only way to connect us, and mostly disbelive other ways of connection. Have you heard that people are also connected in prayers? Internet and phone signal although being ubiqitous are not always available, but God is: He is everywhere. By caring and praying for each others we are connected to God’s network, and by entrusting everything to Him, we can rest assured that nothing is going in vain, especially when the cause of our praying is love.
You see that care and love are not just words? It’s pretty easy to say love to somebody, but how hard it is to actually live up to that? I bet you, now with a wife, and soon a daughter, know better than me. All that I know is from Mother Teresa’s idea, the whole line goes like this
The fruit of silence is prayer, the fruit of prayer is faith, the fruit of faith is love, the fruit of love is service and the fruit of service is peace. (Mother Teresa, A Simple Path)
Left aside the first part, you see that the fruit of love is service, when you truly dearly love someone, you want to do them good, and for me that’s either through deeds or words, not just one, but both. Why limiting ourselves when we can do both? The saying actually refers to our relationship with God: through silence and prayers, we come to have faith and love Him even more, and the final fruit that we obtain is peace, eternal peace. And didn’t I just mention through love and care for the other, we connect to God? And what can we obtain from that? Peace, not just for you and those you who love as well.
Your (best) friend,
Me