Do you ever stop to think about how many people populate the earth? According to Wikipedia, there are over 7 billion people living their lives day by day.

7 Billion.

Think about your life. The things you deal with and experience, think of the people you know and have contact with daily {perhaps that number has grown in the last couple of years…thanks to social media} and the things they deal with and experience.  Now, think that there are 7 billion people living lives and having experiences.

Life is filled with so many good, hard, ugly, sweet, lovely moments. Those 7 billion people are celebrating, mourning, hurting, rejoicing, loosing, gaining.

How many of them are alone?
How many are feeling hopeless?
How many don’t know what it is like to feel loved?
How many don’t know how they will make it through today?

Every single one of those 7 billion has a name and with every name comes a story.

You and I have been given stories too. Stories that are also full of struggle and pain, joys and lessons. We have been given our stories for a reason and a purpose. Our stories are meant to be shared so that we can reach out to, love and touch just a few of those 7 billion.

I don’t know who your story is suppose to give hope to today. I don’t know who you have been called and enabled to show love to.  What I do know is…

…those people exist.

Those people could be your neighbors, a parent at your child’s school, a friend you haven’t heard from in awhile, your followers on Facebook.

Whoever they are, their Creator longs to use you to touch them. To give them hope, to show them compassion and to help them feel loved.

The challenge today? For Me? For You? To stop and think about the handful among the 7 billion that we are privileged to touch and to think about ways that we can reach out and become a part of someone else’s story.

Question:  What action can you take today to share a part of you to encourage, love, or give hope to someone?  Share you comment by clicking here.

Photo Credit:  James Cridland {Creative Commons}