Lonely Voices

It was another lonely voice. Another heart aching for some one to listen, someone to laugh with them, someone who seemed to care.

She started by asking some questions about what to do about price adjustments, and then from there told me of her family, and her hopes for this year's refund and what she was going to give to her daughters for a gift. Then, after nearly 20 minutes, she thanked me for listening, and was gone. I wanted to cry. I wished I could have reached through the phone and given her a hug. Spent some real, quality time with her, help her to know that there are still people who care.

She was alone. Her past filled with some of the most deep and searing heartaches, her joy marred by people who seemed to delight in destroying any little bit of joy she found in life. I was only checking the availability of a product in a store close to her, and as one little thing led to another, she began to unburden her heart, and pour out a testimony of brokenness-- and of the ties of love to the One who had never failed her. When she found that I too, believed in a God who is mighty to save, she told of her past life of pain, and how God brought beauty from the ashes, joy... small as it might have seemed to some, from the pain of the past. When at last the call came to a close, she thanked me for blessing her, and wondered if I might be an Angel. No... not an angel, just another pilgrim on the journey, I assured her, and truly... I feel as if i was the one who was blessed the most by that opportunity. Who would have thought that working for Toys R Us as a Customer Service Agent would bring moments such as these, to share a little of God's love with those who's hearts are weary?

This world is so rushed, so very impersonal sometimes. We brush by people, hurry on by, so busy with living that we forget about life. We forget about others, and that there are people who spend each day waiting for someone who will never come, waiting for words that will give them courage to face another day, dying inside for want of something as small as a smile, a kind word, a squeeze of the hand, or someone to listen, so that they know they're not alone in this world and that their life is worth something...that people still do care.

Lonely voices. I hear them so often through out the day. Lonely faces. Everywhere I go, looking so empty, so alone and it breaks my heart. Lonely voices, lonely, broken people... I see them all around me, and they cry out to me. I often wish I could do something...something to cheer those lonely, longing, wistful voices and faces for just a moment. I wish I could somehow make a difference in their lives, and share the joy of living with them. Yet, my moments are so brief. My opportunities to make a difference so very short, and so many of these lonely people go on by, and I never have the chance to make that difference that I long to make, and it hurts inside, while the words to a song that often made me cry as a child echo through my mind, and I pray that He who longs to heal our sorrow will be a friend to them.

Though in the few moments I may have on the phone with a guest, or the few seconds of eye contact I may have with a sad faced stranger in the store, I wonder if I have made any difference at all in the long run, I cannot give up praying for those opportunities, nor doing what I can. I may never be able to make a difference in the lives of very many people, I am determined, by His grace, to make a difference in the lives of the few that God does place in my path- whether it be a lonely and hurting woman who calls Toys R Us for some random reason and ends up talking for 20 minutes, or a young child who can't figure out what is wrong with their beloved toy and believes with all their heart that the people on the phone will help them fix it, or the many people who walk by me on the few times every few months that I get in to town- people who may just need a smile. I am determined to do what I can. It may not be much, it may not go far, but what if it does?

God is looking for people who are willing to not look at what they can't do, not look at how little and insignificant their sphere of influence may be, but those who are willing to simply live for Him- to share the love He gives with all who we do meet. There is no limit to what God can do with the lives of those who do this. Let's purpose to live each day, focusing on what is important in His eyes.

- by Chantel Harding