Ten Minutes
She is lonely. She has no family in our area. She is, in fact, estranged from her family who all live in another state. She is in a nursing home. She can be demanding.
She has/is a soul.
I was visiting with her recently. I was being reminded (again) that, at least as far as she is concerned, I do not visit her nearly often enough.
During our conversation, she said something that I find difficult to get off my mind. She asked if I could encourage others from our congregation to visit with her.
That’s not the part of the conversation that has stayed with me. In fact, in some ways I dismissed it fairly quickly because I know that others have visited her. In addition to spending time with her, they have also spent other resources in order to provide her with some things that they thought she might enjoy.
The part of the conversation that I’m still thinking about are the few words she added to the end of her request:
“…maybe for only about ten minutes or so.”
In some ways, I wonder how much she really meant that. She may have thought she meant it, but I know from my own experience that she may not have. Along with thinking that I don’t visit often enough, she also makes it clear that she thinks that I do not stay nearly long enough when I do visit.
At the same time, her comment has made me do some thinking. I’ve been told that sermons do not have to be eternal to be immortal. I think that is a kind way of saying that a lot can be said in a short time. (Is there a message there somewhere?)
I’m thinking that the same thing can be true about acts of kindness, displays of concern, conversations, etc. I’m thinking that we can have a big impact on somebody without doing something grand, elaborate, or even lengthy.
It might be that ten minutes is all you can spare at any given time. Those ten minutes may make a real difference in somebody’s life.
Those ten minutes might possibly make a difference for eternity.
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AUTHOR: Jim Faughn
