Sometimes our own hurt and pain, our own secret and desperate fears blind us to the needs of others. There is need at every turn in our troubled world. What a different world we would live in if we sought to look past ourselves and reach out to others.

When River Jordan’s two sons were serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, her heart was heavy, and she desperately needed the prayers of other people. In an effort to get her mind off her own fears, she began reaching out to others resolving to pray for at least one stranger each day. It could be the cashier at the grocery store, a man walking down the street, or a person on Facebook.

In her book, Praying for Strangers, Jordan explains that she was not an extremely outgoing person when it came to meeting strangers. At first, she felt foolish tapping someone on the shoulder and saying, “Excuse me, but today you’re my stranger. I’ll be praying special prayers all day for you.” However, she found that most people were grateful and most often they would tell her about their needs and give specific prayer requests.

She was easily drawn to people who looked helpless, such as the old man on the corner, the woman in ragged clothing, or the crumpled-over soul at the bus stop. But she found that well-dressed ladies driving expensive cars and wearing confident smiles often carried overwhelming, hidden burdens, also.

Tony Bellizzi, author of The Fast Lane, says that the list of secret pains of the people around us is endless and that every single person has a story. He believes that most people are seeking love, respect, and acceptance. He writes, “Opportunities to love are everywhere; just look around. Every school shooting you will ever hear about and every suicide you will ever know of is some person who might have been spared tragedy if they had been given a little kindness.”

Bellizzi suggests that we educate ourselves about what’s going on in our world, and he sights these facts:

One in four babies are murdered by abortion. One in one hundred Americans are in jail. Forty percent of American teens self-mutilate. One in one hundred teens have an eating disorder. Slavery and human trafficking are thriving in America.

While praying for strangers, River Jordan became very sensitive to nudges from God. While driving down the street one day, she was impressed to knock on the door of a house with a For Sale sign in the yard. When a tearful woman answered the door, Jordan knew she had found her “stranger” for the day. When she offered prayer, the woman confessed that she had been planning suicide and said, “I prayed one last prayer. I said, Lord, if you want me to live and not die today, just send someone to my door who will just listen to my story.”

River Jordan and Toni Bellizzi remind us that we live in a destitute world filled with needy people of all descriptions and that we are very important to each other. Christians are called to imitate Jesus, to reach out to others and meet each other’s needs.

Jordan ends her story with: “Sometimes the end of the rope is so near the surface of a person’s soul. And we never know how one more drop of rain might just push that person over the edge into the abyss. Yet one small prayer might be the difference that pulls them back from the brink.”