While others have found their life passions – dancing, singing, painting – I too, have found mine.
Passion for compassion, as I usually say. I love helping people, reaching out to people, and being some form of sunshine in the lives of those whom I love. Some irony I suppose, as I’m also someone who’s uncomfortable when put in the spotlight or praised for what I do. I’ve found myself puzzled by this norm of magnifying an individual’s act of kindness as something out of the ordinary or some sort of heroic act nowadays.
Why has it reached the level of being uncommon – too infrequently done in society, that it’s celebrated when an ordinary individual chooses to do something extraordinary for another? Is not every individual worth it, regardless of who he is, where he’s from, or what he does?
Perhaps we need to have a fresh perspective of each person. While no two people are the same and we are all distinct from one another in beliefs, cultures, genders, socioeconomic status, and interests, one commonality that we have is our inherent, inviolable dignity – our worth and value.
So to you reading this,
I’d like to challenge you. You see those people you come across on the streets every day? Those people you talk to and work with? Those you pass by with no food and shelter on the streets while you’re on the road? They too have dignity – the same worth and value as you and me. Let’s see people in new light, shall we?
There must be one moment in your life where someone had shown you kindness and you felt valued, favored, and grateful. I urge you to pay it forward and give someone an opportunity to feel the same way.
There are actually a million and one ways to go – you can start in familiar places with familiar faces. Utilize your God-given talents, skills, or interests to shed a little light to your homes and workplaces. It doesn’t have to be monetary or material – kindness can be in the form of a prayer where you are investing yourself in another person’s life, or volunteering at an orphanage, or even greeting your neighbor next door.
As cliché as it sounds, a single act of kindness can go a long way – it’s like a droplet of water that could send ripples of new hope to someone and before you know it, he who received the end of that ripple becomes the center of another one in another person’s life – all because you chose to show a drop of kindness to someone else’s ocean. Eventually, you’ll be surprised to find yourself feeling like you have received much more than you have given – and I’m truly excited for you to feel that renewing warmth in you each time.
May we all live to see the day where kindness and helping become so common – a lifestyle even, and compassion becomes a norm. But until then, we have to continue to go the extra mile and shed light in every dark corner of the world. Know that you’re what the world needs right now. You’re someone the world will never have too much of.
“Never let loyalty and kindness leave you… Write them deep within your heart.” – Proverbs 3:3
Written by Liam Eliel Jasarino, a regional intern at the World Youth Alliance Asia Pacific office | Learn more about the WYA Asia Pacific Regional Internship here.
