Blessed are they who mourn

It may sound like my life, my words, my heart, are always kind and full of compassion.  While that is my prayer and my goal, realistically it is just not so.

I’m struggling with how to be kind to a prisoner who has been untruthful to his supporter.  I’m upset with a guy who refuses to go to the people we suggest with his medical issues.  Instead, he keeps bombarding me with medical records which I don’t want, which I don’t know how to read, and with which I don’t know what to do.  I’m trying to be kind to a little girl who wants us to help file an application for commutation of her sentence, but she just keeps insisting that she is simple-minded and that we must do all the work for her.  I’ve got to watch myself, because I can have a quick tongue.  I must put myself in their shoes and take a deep breath, then try to respond in a kind and compassionate manner.

But then, in the midst of these and many more, I get hit with the simplest of requests, and I melt.

Says Richard:

I am writing to ask a favor if at all possible. The girl that I was pretty close to was killed in a hit and run accident.  She was not very computer literate, so I have no pictures of our memories or her on my JPay.  Can I send you 3 photos of her, and some of our personal memories and hang out spots, then have you put them on the computer and send them back to me on JPay so that I have them on my tablet?

Gulp.  Then he goes on:

I would not ask but I have no one else to ask or turn to.  One of the pictures is a put-together that I did myself to try to make it look like it was taken of us together, in one of our favorite places. I would be very grateful and appreciative. Also there is a website through the funeral parlor that is handling her remains, that allows loved ones to post comments for the deceased, and their family. Can you please go to the website and type a message for me and put my name at the bottom?

Yes, we can and we will, Richard.  We’re honored to be asked.  We’re happy that we can help. Consider it done.

I may be short tempered, ill mannered, fidgety and fussy sometimes, but HFP’s work is “Jesus work,” and we do our best to model his methods and practices during his short time on earth.

May Richard feel these words of the Master today:

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

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