Practicality

Can common sense be a spiritual gift? Because really, most days I don't think I'm all that spiritually perceptive, but I think I have an awfully practical way of looking at things...

For example, I just called a friend. Someone called me to let me in on a possible crisis, and so I gave her a call. When she hadn't been able to reach me originally, she tried another friend. That friend seemed busy, so rather than saying there was a crisis in the mix, she moved on and phoned someone else. That someone wasn't that helpful to her, but that someone called me.

So, I called her. She was thinking about running away, and needed a reason not to. My reasons felt ridiculously practical to me. "Well, you committed to not doing things that were harmful to yourself. Running away from this situation is harming yourself emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. You also promised to meet a bunch of us for dinner tomorrow night."

And then, I became even more practical. "Leave the bus station." She said she needed motivation to get up. "I'm your motivation. Get up and leave the bus station." And she did.

But here's the thing. I usually don't have what I would define as "deep spiritual insights" into the lives of my friends. But I have lots of practical advice. Call someone when you need help. Tell them what's actually going on when you do call. Don't call someone who has consistently given you bad advice. Call before you self-destruct. Don't harm yourself because it's only going to help for a moment, and then you're just going to have more baggage to deal with. These are the kinds of things that come out of my mouth, and I hope they're from God.