what the heck's your problem!

i am generally a happy person. i have been my whole life. i think if you were to ask anybody that knows me, they would agree that i usually have a smile on my face (except in the morning) or i am laughing at something. i like to be happy. in fact, i love to be happy. and it makes me sad when people aren't happy and don't live life happy. sometimes i just want to say to people, i promise that if you were a little happier life would seem a whole lot better. but i don't say that, cause that would be rude and might seem like i don't care about people's problems. and i do care.

but there is something that really bugs me. rude people. or people that think they don't have the time to smile or wave (or think they are the only ones with problems & issues). here is the deal. i now live in a town of 25,000 people. that is the kind of town in the movies where everyone knows everyone, everyone waves to everyone, and everyone is invited to the same parties. i like that idea of a town. it seems somewhat magical. i picture the downtown to be snowy, full of christmas lights and sleigh rides year round (because those things seem happy to me). i also picture the downtown to be full of cheerful people hollering to see how someone's family is, or how their daughter off in college is, or simply just to say hello. REALITY CHECK. this is NOT the movies. the town is not snowy, not full of christmas lights and sleigh rides, and definitely not full of happy people.

i was leaving downtown yesterday, and a man was crossing the street in front of my car. i looked at him and smiled and waited for a smile back. he looked at me and then looked away as if he never saw me smiling at him. i'll be honest. i was really annoyed, how hard is it to smile at someone! i then saw some of the words on his ball-cap and was no longer annoyed, just really sad. his hat had lots of words, but the two that i saw were HOPE and JESUS. are you kidding me? where is the HOPE man? where is JESUS? and where the heck is your smile? i started driving towards the freeway and was really bothered by this whole thing. it makes me sad when people are unhappy and it especially makes me sad when people who know jesus are unhappy. what kind of example are we being to other people who don't know jesus? as i approached the freeway there was a car turning real close to mine and so again, i smiled at the man. he looked at me with a disgusted face as if i had just flipped him off or something. all i wanted to say to this man was what the heck's your problem! i could not believe my eyes. i was shunned 2 out 0f 2 times by 2 old men in a matter of 2 minutes!

as i drove home i pondered these things. i then told my husband about it when he got home because i was so disturbed. what is wrong with people? why can't we smile and wave and be nice to each other? why do we always have to be so busy and in such a hurry that we can't take the time to be pleasant to one another (i am talking strangers here, not just people we know). i think jesus would want us to be nice to one another. and to smile and wave. and to holler out to one another to ask how the family is. but maybe that's just me since i like to be happy. any thoughts?