Morning Devotional

November  16, 2005
"Good Medicine"       
    by Don Emmitte

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A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit saps a person's strength. (Proverbs 17:22 NLT).

Most mornings when I arrive at work I go to the customer waiting area to get a cup of coffee and greet some of the people waiting for their cars to be repaired.  I’ve noticed that most of these people don’t smile. I know that many of them are being inconvenienced by the need for repair on their vehicle, however few them even look directly at others around them. Mostly they stare, mesmerized in their own private thoughts. Some anesthetize themselves with earphones that tune them into a different world. So many people so close together, and scared to death of smiling. How tragic!

A smile is a sign of humanity. A sign that we are willing to communicate. That our sadness, no matter how deep, will not overcome us. But for many on their personal journey, there is no joy. Their lives, I suppose, are full of pain and hopelessness. Perhaps they feel trapped. Trapped in dead-end jobs they do not like. Trapped in a cycle of unemployment and welfare. Trapped in marriages. Trapped in singleness. Trapped in divorce. Trapped in widowhood. Trapped in life. Trapped. And without a smile.

That’s too bad, too. A smile is a sign of hope. Of hope in another person. Of trust. If I smile at you, if I let my personality bridge the distance between us in a crowded waiting room, perhaps you'll smile back. Perhaps you'll connect with me. And so I smile in hope, and am met with eyes turned away, of body language that protects itself from those closest by, with a posture designed to avoid contact, personal contact, on a crowded bus.

The lack of a smile is loneliness personified, I guess. It is not letting oneself relate. It is being surrounded, but lonely -- desperately lonely -- yet are afraid to smile, for that would break the loneliness and threaten the solitude. So they do not smile.

They do not smile, I suppose, mainly out of fear. Fear of me. Fear of the person next to them. I wonder how Jesus greeted people? With a grave religiosity? With a proper reserve? With a clearly defined distance from soiled humanity? Of course not. He felt the jostling of the crowds. He touched the unclean. He stopped and inquired, "Who touched me?" I don't think he was afraid to meet people's eyes with his own. I think he smiled into their soul a smile of hope that would ignite hope within them. A smile of friendship and acceptance to tantalize and then gently unwind that tightly coiled loneliness. A smile of fearlessness willing to handle our pent-up hostilities and agendas and not-so-pure motives. If Jesus could do it, maybe we could too. Try a smile today. It is good medicine for you and the others you come into contact with!