Bears on the road

In Dutch we have this saying “to see bears on the road” (translated freely from "alleen maar beren op de weg zien") which means something like “to make a mountain out of the mole hill” or “to think only about all the possible negative outcomes.

Last Thursday i walked by a stranger on the street who was not in a good place. i can’t explain why, i mean: so many people are hurting these days and yet i’m not walking up to all of them asking them if they were alright. But last Thursday as i saw this man standing on the roadside, frozen in time and place it seemed, i could not leave him there. It was a dangerous spot with cars passing by. Drivers looked at him confused about his intentions. And i just knew right away this man wasn’t in a good place. For the first 5-10 minutes he didn’t say a word. i know, it would have been oh-so-normal to just walk away and leave him be. i mean it was raining, i just came from my work and was tired. Yet i knew it’d be a mistake to just go home.

To be honest everything in me longed for my hot water bottle and a cup of tea. So please remember that and know that there was nothing good about me, as i stood there alongside this stranger on the roadside. Talking, trying to convince the man to walk to a bench in stead of standing there. i stood there listening to his difficulty breathing. i stood there recognizing his distant look in the eyes, his lack of affect in his mimic.

i’m not gonna write about all we talked about. Well, he talked and i tried to listen as best i could, i prayed silently asking the Lord for wisdom. i knew this situation was beyond my ability to listen, my ability to think of possibilities. i tried to point out some resources this man could reach out to for help and eventually helped him get to the urgent care. He definitely needed medical attention, someone to review his state of mind and someone to take him by the hand as he had to reach out for more long-term help for long-term solutions.

What was intriguing about this man was is ability to joke around even though he was in such a bad place. And when he talked about all those “bears he saw on his path” he told me he had to find a way to colour some pink bears along the other, scary, big ones.

That stuck by me. How could someone hurting so badly joke around. And not just joke around, i guess this is a good visual on how to deal with our fears and problems. If you know me just a bit, you’d probably know that i’m not living on a cloud where it’s all rosy – i too have seen my share of raindrops and thorns. Yet this man encouraged me. By talking about those pink bears on the road ahead. And i thought i’d share. Maybe someone else will find this encouraging, too. If not, well at least i explained my sudden interest for pink bears  xD

Do you see any bears big or small, on the road ahead?

How do you deal with them?

What pink bears can you colour on your road?

i hope and pray through me the Lord showed this man something of His amazing Love. i know this man showed me His Mighty Power!