life changing stuff

The last couple of days have been a strange couple of days, nothing particulary big or small has happened however the events have effected me in a few ways, which in turn will effect at least my short term future in many ways.

Imagine the scene a 17 year old lad is sat head in his arms staring at his mobile, every so often you get a grunt or some sort of small talk (normally about leicester city!). He then asks the biggest question any man could ask anouther man "why is always the mans fault?"

whoa! now before I continue this scenario let me please apologise to any women reading this blog, but in truth the question is one which us men often ask and to this day have failed to answer.

My response "umm well do u think its her fault?"
Him "Yeah its definitly her fault"
Me "well the reason its always the mans fault in her view is cause its always her fault in your view!"
Him "oh yeah"
and the chat goes on and on and on until....
Him "Matt can I have that questionaire back" (we had all the youths fill in a big questionaire one of the pages dedicated to getting feedback on me)
Me "why?"
Him "well I said I wouldnt talk to you about my problems cause youd take the piss, and I want to change that now coz I know you wouldnt!"

Now this may not seem like a big thing to you, but to me I spend over 40 hours a week trying to make small breakthoughs with young people, and this is what I needed at that exact moment. I was tired of no young people coming in, of the criticism for lack of organisation, the... well you get the picture. Then in this moment (which the youth probably thought was just anouther meaningless chat) I got the kick from God saying - your not wasting your time, just be patient and your change lives!

Now you wont know this coz i havent told anyone but I was really in a why do I bother stage at work, the stage where it feels like im not doing youth work just running a cafe, the stage where i think about what life would be like in a 9 to 5 job where I had the evenings and weekends off, where im well paid, and well yeah you get the point. So this small moment sorted that out (hopefully there will be a few more small moments soon tho coz i dont want to have to rely on it for a while.)

The next moment came through a text message. Now I am addicted to texts, I use them a lot coz most of my friends live so far away that i cant give them a hug when they (or I) need them, or just to say im thinking of them or whatever. Sometimes I even feel God telling me to text someone i havent texted for ages (although that doesnt happen too often). Well this is fine, you may think, but I barely ever recieve texts, probably coz I text people so much that they get fed up of me and so ignore my messages and assume theirs no meaning behind them. Well today I recieved a text like one ive never recieved before. It was someone who had just decided to text out of the blue. im sure they didnt think it was a particulary meaningful message or a very special one but (Im ashamed to say this) it brought a slight tear to my eye. what did it say? I hear you ask.... well youl have to read on and at the end of the blog Il tell you!

So my happiness at work got the kick up the backside it needed, my emotional side got touched, what next. Well on Sunday we lost the venue we are hosting a variety show in. So we had the acts, the date, the time, a few people expressing interest in coming but no venue. Well to cut a long story short someone approached me and (without knowing we had lost the venue) said "you should have done it at our church!" so now we have a venue! A blatant answer to prayer! Thankyou God - I am panicking now tho coz I have to sort my acts out, Im due to be singing 2 songs but havent chosen them or sorted music yet as I havent done a serious performance in public since I was 18, 8 years ago! so pretty nervous - I have my suit ready tho so i know what im wearing lol.

Finally the biggest thing that happend, and its a really really small thing but il remember it for a long time. Theres this old man who I think lives just down the road. I see him all the time and always say hello and he never replies, or acknowleges it or even smiles. Infact he worse than Victor meldrew, the ultimate miserable old man. Well today I walked past him and said hello and he looked up, looked at me for a minute made a strange grunt like noise and nodded his head and smiled. Wow he acknowledged me - whats going on. well like I said it was a small thing but this smile really made my day.

All this has made me realise the importance of the small things. i know its biblical and I know its pretty obvious but i think we all forget it (I know i do). The smallest of things have a big effect.
Maybe you smile at someone every day.
Maybe you say bless you when someone sneezes
theres loads more examples but the thing I realised over the last 2 days is without the small things life would be so much worse than it is.

So I guess I have a challenge to you all, and to myself.

Set yourself a target to do 1 small thing every day. It may be saying hello to a neighbour, giving a friendly smile to the harrassed parking attendant, saying keep the change to the person serving you, or sending a text to someone you havent contacted for a while just to let them know your thinking of them.

You may just change someones life without even knowing it - whats the worst that can happen?

oh yeah by the way the text said: -

":-) A smile for you coz knowing you makes me smile"