Ever wonder why the “short bus” is so short?  You know what I’m talking about.  It’s that small yellow school bus that only seats about 15 people and comes equipped with a ramp for the handicapped.  Well, do you know why it’s that size?  It’s because the kind of people that the bus picks up are few per school and it just wouldn’t be necessary to use the standard 50 – 70 passenger size bus.

That bus has been the butt of all jokes since its introduction to the world and I’m guilty, as many of you probably are, of teasing a friend as being someone who use to ride the “short bus”.  There’s always a perfect time for that joke and it never gets old.  Ha, I’m laughing right now just typing about it.

What’s not funny though is the condition of the people that have to ride that bus.  Those that come to mind from high school were several that were either slightly handicapped or confined to a wheel chair because of cerebral palsy.  There’s one guy in particular that I remember, who’s name was Cory, and he was one of the nicest guys on campus.  He wasn’t wheelchair bound and he seemed “normal”, aside from being somewhat “slow”, yet his BIG heart overpowered his handicap.

I bring the “short bus” up, because the handicapped or mentally challenged are a group of people that have obvious differences from the rest of us and aren’t people that we would normally “hang out” with.  It is what it is.  But what about those that are simply “different”, or those that aren’t as “attractive” as your normal group of friends?  What about the sophmore or junior in your school that doesn’t have the money to buy designer clothes and shoes and because he has limited friends, he sits alone in the cafeteria?  What about the co-worker who doesn’t have the greatest personality, which has limited the number of people that want to hang around her?  She spends many days watching you and your friends venture out for lunch, never having been invited to join.

Do something different today.  Find those people that are alone and hurting, hungry for friendship and let them know that you take notice.  Take a break from your regular group of friends during lunch and walk over to someone who’s sitting alone in the cafeteria.  Just hang out and eat lunch with them.  Your friends will always be there.  And if they think you’re weird, who cares?  Maybe you are weird.  You’ll be doing something abnormal, and that’s just freakin weird!

Work in an office?  Great.  Offices are full of people that could use some cheering up.  Maybe you know a single mom in the office that could use some extra cash to buy her kid some school clothes or supplies.  Purchase them a gift certificate and simply offer them a gift for no reason.  Gifts mean more anyway when they’re given for no occasion.

In Acts 20:35 of the Bible, Paul recalls some simple words he received from Jesus.  Those words were that “it’s more blessed to give than to receive”.  You’ll get so much more out of giving to those that need to receive.  Imagine how many lives we could change in one day by doing good to people and sharing God’s love with them through simple acts of kindness.  Again, step out today, do something different, change somebodies life.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009 at 11:28 pm and is filed under Blog, Personal Growth, Students. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.