Population -- Me

I’m becoming obsessed with Matthew West. I never realized before how much I really like his music.

One of the songs that God has really placed on my heart is ‘My Own Little World’. The song talks about how we sometimes because so ‘me’ focused that we forget that there are other people in the world. We only see ‘our’ would, ‘our’ life and we don’t realize that there are people that need our help and attention.

The music video shows a man who gets up, goes to work and has a daily routine. One day he sees a homeless widow standing on the corner and he realizes that she is a human. A living, breathing human who needs his help. So he helps her out and then the music video shows how he can help all these other people.

My favorite lyric is the line: “And my own little world reached population two”.

By taking just one moment, one moment of looking up from ourselves we can bring someone else into our lives and we can influence them.

The music video shows a homeless woman, a stranded mother with a child, a man who lost his job, a veteran with a broken vehicle, and a women crying on a bench.

Now, all these examples are great and we need to remember to help people in distress. But the group of people that the Lord placed on my heart was my father’s family.

I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned on this blog how I don’t get along with my father’s family. When I think of my “family” I think of my mother’s family and the people in Texas; the family I created for myself.

I purposely go out of my way to make sure that my dad’s side of the family is left out of the loop when it comes to the details of my life. I hardly communicate with any of them and when we have family-get-together’s I make sure to keep them at arm’s length. I try to avoid them at all costs.

Now, I know this isn’t very nice or very ‘Christ’-like. I know I shouldn’t have this much resentment towards them. And my reasoning is that I don’t want their lifestyle or principles to influence me. But God is starting to show me that I need to let them into ‘my own little world’. And just because they’ll be in ‘my own little world’ doesn’t mean that they’ll influence me - I could influence them.

My uncle passed today, my dad’s brother. He and I didn’t see eye-to-eye and honestly I couldn’t stand him. He wasn’t a very nice person to my father and me. But, he was a human. He was created and loved by God. My Almighty God.

I realize that I respect him more as a human-being now that he’s dead then when he was alive. And I know that’s not right.

God is starting to show me that I can, not like people. But by me not liking them, that doesn’t mean that I can despise them or even hate them. We’re all humans. We’re all created by God. We’re all His children.

If God loves me, His child, then that means that He loves them too, His other children. I don’t have to give them control or influence in my life, but I do need to validate them as His children. And even though they might not respect me as a human-being, I need to try to respect them as one.

‘Father, break my heart for what breaks Yours
Give me open hands and open doors
Put Your light in my eyes and let me see
That my own little world is not about me’