The Many Thoughts of Wanda Kidd

This morning, I received a note from a young woman who participated in a ministry internship program I directed for twelve years. It was a program I believed in, and I saw it change lives. For some, it confirmed a calling to ministry; for others, it clarified that ministry may not be their professional choice.

Today’s message was from someone who had gone through the summer internship, and it did not turn out the way she thought it would. Her note to me was one of gratitude for the acceptance of her feelings and her choices, and she just wanted to say “thank you.”

So much of what we do in the lives of others is a shot in the dark. Did I cause them harm? Did they hear it in the manner in which I intended it? Does any of this matter?

So, that message was a beacon of affirmation. It is what anyone who works with people in transition hopes to receive one day. When you open your computer and out of the blue, someone says, “What you said that day, it mattered,” “How you treated me amid a very low point in my life gave me the courage to keep trying,” or any other acknowledgment declaring that how you invested your life had value and a lingering imprint.

Those moments of response always make me “tear up” because I truly cannot imagine investing my life in any way other than helping people, particularly young people, know that they are a “Beloved child of God and they have value to this world.” 

I will be the first to admit that my delivery was not always gentle, nor did I at all times ease into what I wanted to say with patience. Still, with all that I am, I hope they knew my intent was rooted in a compassionate desire for them to be “well and whole.”

I have been to several funerals lately (I am at that stage of life). They have been full of stories and expressions of gratitude, but the note I received this morning reminds me not to wait to tell those who impacted my life, both young and old, how grateful I am for them.

It reminds me of a line from the old Oak Ridge Boys song Everyday. It says “You know a kind work never goes unheard
But too often goes unsaid.”

You know with all the trouble and sorrow in the world
It seems like the least we can do
Just take a kind word into the street
And share it with everybody you meet

May it be so.