Have people grow cold these days? I feel that people are colder in terms on how they relate with others. How about you? Do you still care about those around you? I can say I’m guilty as well. I feel like sometime or most of the time, I am careless with what happen around me. I’m looking at my surrounding, but I just either feel nothing I can do or feeling other people should help and not me. But the problem is, most of the people think the same way

As a few moments or incidents that I encountered recently I learn something that I need to stop my coldness towards other. I’m not saying I will dedicate myself fully to help others, but I’m saying I’ll do my part when the time comes. There are some things that I intend to do to help me and to help you to care for others

1. Small things matter.
It doesn’t take much to help others. Sometime I think that I need to complete my help until the task is done. Remember Bay max from “Big Hero 6” movie? He was built to help people and he will really help others until completion before he stop. But most of us don’t have time and skill to help all the way.

When people do a bit of part that they can do, that will help too. During my train ride to home a few months ago, I saw somebody took the same train with me and he was either drunk or just feeling not too well. He’s about in his 80s and no one offered seat for him. He was laying down on the floor and seems oblivious to his surrounding (of course, he’s not to we’ll, what should we expect) some people just talk on how other people should press emergency button to notify the train conductor, but no one did. A few students ask him something but I didn’t catch what he said as he was quite far from me. As for me, at the beginning I hope that no one press the emergency button, because that would mean my trip will be delayed. I should do something faster, but during my battle on my mind, I reached my terminal. What I can do is to notify the passenger service about the situation and let the trained personnel to handle it. It struck my mind though, there were some people stops at the station before, but nothing happened. Either the staff or the passengers was not doing anything. Isn’t it sad? What if it happens to you and me?

2. Be aware of your surrounding.
Anything can happen anywhere you go. You’ll never know what will happen around you. I guess I watch too many action movie and detective drama so that it makes me a bit paranoid of my surrounding. Occasionally I’ll look around during my commute or walking. Sometime I hope to see something big happening in front of me, but up to now, there’s nothing big happen. it’s just a usual things that happen. I learned this from a train staff who just happen to stand near the waiting platform on that day. not the day before or the day after. Just on that day. I was reading an article on my phone. Somebody was walking and sit on a bench and sounds really tired. The staff quickly approach the person and ask how she’s doing. Apparently she’s feeling unwell, the staff acted quickly and help her. Sometime in our life, we won’t experience extraordinary things, but just because somebody is aware of the situation, it made a different.

You can make a different too. Just be aware of your surrounding. It doesn’t matter if you’re driving or taking public transport, you might have a chance to make a difference. The sad thing is there are a lot of people use compassion to steal from others. for example, i saw somebody said to another person that he need some money to go home and ask for a spare change. he got a spare change and he’s very thankful. After the guy who gave the money walk away, the same guy ask for money again to another person. That’s why we need to be aware of our surrounding, so that, hopefully, we can tell who really needs help or not.

3. Accept the help from others
We are not super man or woman that can do everything by ourselves. Sometime we need to pay to get help from others, but how about accepting help from people that you don’t know or from your friend? Some people might be too hesitant to receive help because they think that it’s a sign of weakness. But it’s not. I think it’s a way for people to practice their compassion too. Keep in mind that it doesn’t mean that you just wait for help from everybody without doing your part to help others. Just like giving help all the time is not healthy, receiving help all the time is not healthy too.

When I just moved to another house, I was hiring some people to help moving my stuff to the new place. There was a problem with moving my bed. It didn’t fit into the elevator and it seems it doesn’t fit the stairs too. We are almost giving up and not sure what to do. Then at that time there’s an old man, maybe in his 50s asked what happened and energize us not to give up and says that it is possible to move the bed through the staircase. He’s not only just saying, but also helped us move my bed through the stairs until it reach my house. I’m lucky that I my house is in third floor, but I’m not sure whether that uncle knew or not, but he’s helping me until the end.

Have you encounter a situation that you’re required help from others? Or have you encounter someone that needs your help? Most of the time in our life, unless you work in the line where you face big incidents like firefighter, policeman, etc, we encounter normal situation that we can help. The question for you and me is are we willing to help? It doesn’t take much to help. We need to take part in growing our compassion in this cold world. I like the ending of “Evan Almighty”, where it shows God asked Evan, “How do we change the world?” , “it’s by doing one Act of Random Kindness”. You and I take important role in our lives. take part in it. you’ll never know what will happen, but it will worthwhile when we take our part.

How do you protect yourself from being cold to others in your life?

Ephesians 4:32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.