How many of us take note of the people that sit next to us? Do we know them? Do we take a few minutes to know and understand who they are? What they do? Where they are from? Do we even care for them?

How many of us take note of the people that sit next to us? Do we focus on how they are dressed? Do we focus on who they came with than where they come from? Do we consider what they have lost when they chose to sit next to us?

How many of us take note of the people that sit next to us? Do we give them time? Do we fear them because of the bruises on their faces? Do we fear approaching them because of the smell they have? Are we afraid of them because they are not like us?

How many of us take note of the people that sit next to us? Do we ignore them because they are different from us? Do we avoid them because they do not dress like we do? Do we avoid them because they don’t pray and fast like we do? Do we avoid them because they do not have the capacity to give as much as we do?

How many of us take note of the people that sit next to us? Do we ignore to shake their hands because they are darker than us? Do we ignore communicating with them because they don’t have ipads and iphones like we do? Do we ignore them because they do not look smart and handsome as we do? Or do we ignore them because of their hole on their shirts, jeans and shoes?

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9 years ago I walked in a huge church building only to meet the walls, chairs, the floor, windows and the Gates. 9 years ago I walked in a huge building just to meet a building nothing and no one cared who I am and where I came from. When I looked back and saw where I came from I saw close people who rejected me because I chose to get in that building, I saw people who I used to talk to, live with and go out with moving away because I chose the building, instead of alcohol.

Within that building were two thousand chairs that were occupied, chairs that were occupied by bodies, bodies that did not even turn their heads to notice that I existed, bodies that showed no interest in who I am and where I came from, bodied that cared not that I have lost a lot from where I came from.

Nobody took time to come and ask what my name is, is it my style of dress? I asked, Is it the holes on my shoes or the dirt in my shirt or maybe the uncombed hair on my head? No! just the room full of people who did not care.

Within the bodies that occupied the two thousand chairs were souls. Souls are known to have feeling and show compassion, yet no soul cared. No one cared about who I am inside, Meek. No one cared where I came from, Poverty & Pain. No one cared who I longed for, God. No one cared to see where God was leading me to, Pastor & Author.

When I walked in they did not even notice me. I would pray that one may see me and help me find my way but they did not care or bother to show compassion because I just walked in a building, big walls, big doors, big windows, two thousand chairs, two thousand bodies and two thousand souls, yet no one was there. As the game goes Knock, Knock! No one answered.

As I was about to quit and leave the church because I felt so cold and lonely with no friends to go back too, no love, no peace and no God. I heard a voice saying ‘Hi, I know you, how are you?”. As I opened my mouth to answer joy filled up inside of me, ‘Yes! Someone saw me’. When I stopped talking I remember it was 12pm and two thousand people were around me listening to me speak, when I looked around I was where God wanted me to be, at the pulpit, having published a book at the age of 25 and many young people wanting to be where I am, simply because someone in 2006 decided to say ‘Hi, I know you, how are you?’. How many of us take note of the people that sit next to us? One thing I have learned the past ten years is that one person’s greeting can transform another person’s life.

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