Make Me A Blessing

An old gospel hymn that used to be sung in church goes like this:

Out on the highways and byways of life,
Many are the weary and sad;
Carry the sunshine where darkness is rife,
Making the sorrowing glad.
Chorus:
Make me a blessing, make me a blessing;
Out of my life may Jesus shine.
Make me a blessing, O Saviour I pray,
Make me a blessing to someone today.
(Words by Ira B. Wilson)

The message of that song got stuck somewhere in my psyche, and I've never been able to shake it. Maybe the message that I was hearing so clearly was NOT what a blessing I could be to others, but rather what a delight it would be to have someone bring "sunshine" into MY life. I felt the exhilerating sensation of it in my young imagination. But it was in that moment of selfish, self-centered experience, that I understood the incredible power of a person who could bring sunshine into the life of another. There was a transforming paradigm shift in my heart, and I wanted to be the BRINGER of sunshine! I wanted to be able to make that kind of difference. I wanted to deliver the exhilerating electricity that I had so effectively imagined. It was a defining ephipany. It is not until we are destitute of joy that we fully realize how priceless it is to ride upon the coattails of another person's sunshine. It is vicarious joy..."VIRTUAL" joy to the receiver, and ecstacy to the conduit.

When we were children, my mother quoted to us from memory the following:

Wouldn't this old world be better
If the folks we meet would say-
"I know something good about you!"
And Treat us just that way?
Wouldn't it be fine and dandy
If each handclasp, fond, and true,
Carried with it this assurance-
"I know something good about you!"
Wouldn't life be lots more happy
If the good that's in us all
Were the only thing about us
That folks bothered to recall?
Wouldn't life be lots more happy
If we praised the good we see?
For there's such a lot of goodness
In the worst of you and me!
Wouldn't it be nice to practice
That fine way of thinking, too?
You know something good about me,
I know something good about you?
(Louis C. Shimon)