A Cry For Help

It seems that we as human beings are always asking the questions. Who am I? Why am I? It doesn’t seem to matter how old we get these questions and others like them always seem to come rolling around. Logically these questions should be easy to answer.

I am the middle son of William David Coker. My mother is an orphan from Chicago Illinois. My childhood was nothing spectacular by worldly standards. My relations with siblings was strained and possibly even warped.

As the son of a preacher I was born again at an early age. Later, I discovered I had a God given destiny. This intrigued me to the utmost and I began to fully pursue my God given Destiny. I wanted to be great.

It seems it is in everyone to be something great. My question is, why? Why do I have to be on the cutting edge? Not the noble reason that I tell everyone. Why do I really want to be great? If it isn’t for the right reason, I will reason that anything within my belief system is agreeable for making myself great. (After all there couldn’t possible be anything wrong with my belief system.) I might even sacrifice the feelings and destiny of others to claw my way to the top.

Then one day I had a remarkable thought about my relentless pursuit of destiny. The question itself of, who am I, was all about me. As I began to search deeper, my fears were confirmed. I was all about me. My entire existence was wholly about me. What I wanted was the most important thing to me. Selfishness plagued me. It dominated my thought life. Even when I did things for others it was ultimately about what I could get out of it. I didn’t just use people for the sake of using people. I really felt like it was the best thing for them also. At least that is what I had convinced myself.

My deception was that of the worst kind, self. I had deceived myself into thinking that I was the noble person that I thought I was. I had become the victim of my own ruse. This disturbed me in no small manner. I tried to deny it at first but finally I had to admit the alarming truth about myself. I was selfish and self centered. Then I realized that everyone else was also.
It is the flaw of having a flesh and blood body with a fallen nature I’m afraid. Even if I can identify with your pain I can’t feel exactly what others feel. I feel my own pain much more intensely than yours. I often will move much more quickly to alleviate my pain than that of others.

There have been times were unknown heroes risked life and limb selflessly through fiery buildings, icy waters, or perhaps even a fray of bullets to answer the cry for help. I remember seeing one such incident when I was a child. A woman had fallen into an icy river of substantial size. The rescue unit was on the way with rafts and blankets while onlookers watched from the bridge. Then the unimaginable happened.

One of the onlookers from the bridge jumped twenty feet into the icy water and swam toward the cries for help. He saved the woman’s life and was hailed as a hero. We have all heard of these kinds of selfless acts. When someone’s life is in danger there rings out a cry for help and many times heroes answer true.

There something about the cry of desperation, the cry for help, that causes even the most inhibited person to leave the realm of reason and dive into any situation without thought of life or limb.

People are crying for help all around us everyday. If we would but learn the language we would surely hear their cry. But alas, I find all too often in my life that I’m crying to loud to hear the cry of others.

God heard a cry from humanity and sent a savior. Jesus jumped into the river of humanity to save what was lost. What are the cries that we hear? Are we so caught up in becoming great that we forget to be great in every moment of the day? I can be great without being seen. I can be great without a stage. I can be great when I sincerely do what others will not without being seen. I am great when I serve.

Who or what is crying for help around you? To ignore it, you ignore you change to be great.