Make A Difference

Some people go through life
Never reaching out to touch another
Never making a difference
While they were here and living
Now they are gone, and forever forgotten

Never touching the heart of stranger
Never stopping along life's path to help a stranger
He may be lost and need a hand
Please don't rush by in an air of indifference
Forgetting to stop, too busy to care

How sad to leave this earthly dwelling
Without leaving something behind
Let me make a difference while I live upon this earth
Never forgetting the pain of another,
Or that could be my mother and
How it must pain her to beg for a dollar
Never let become cold and callous
Forgetting the pain of another
Maybe they need a word of comfort or a touch of love

Some people live their lives alone
Never stopping to help another - along life's road
Never caring - never stopping to think about that child
We pass along the highway of life
Who cries out, "Doesnt anyone care?"
As they cry out for love
A look of utter hopelessness, total despair

Never let me withhold my hand from a child to say I care
Who may need the touch of another
An act of kindness
Let him know-- someone cares
Or the homeless one-
faceless and dirty, who lies on city streets
Their houses made of cardboard
Along the way
Laying under the tents of paper
Dirty and smelly

No hope in this world
Let me not leave this earthly dwelling without making a difference today
Faceless people in pain, without hope for tomorrow,
crying out all over the city
Lord, never let me forget their faces
Victims of misfortune along the way
Does it really matter where they came from?
They are somebody's mother or father, or child
Living this way
Hey! I think I know that man over yonder

That could be my neighbor or my father or my teacher from when I was a child...
Let me never forget that this is someone's father
Or mother who is sleeping on that bench today
Lord, always remind me of their pain and sorrow
I dont want to become indifferent --to the ones along life's roads
Each face has a story, each one a story to share.
Of lifes fury, what brought them here to this city this place...
Dont let me brush past that stranger today
Dont let me ever get that way.

What if that were me on the street playing?
Or sleeping there under that tent?
Living in paper houses, filthy places... I shutter to think
What if all the strangers brushed me by, just as I thought to do this morning
Never caring to stop and help.

Will you stop today?
Help a stranger
Or will you rush by with the air of indifference
Pass him by - one more time -
And mutter to yourself...
Oh, tomorrow, I will help him, tomorrow I will try
Tomorrows turn into forevers and before you you know it
It's too late - you are gone and no one remembers
Everybody forgets

Because you left this earthly dwelling, never caring, never stopping
To help with another man's plight
One more time was once to many... Time flew by
Now it's too late
Forgotten forever
In the memories of time

You never made a difference -
You were always too busy to care
About that stranger outside your window
Living in bleakest despair
Now you too are forgotten
Nobody cares

Your life fading like a dying flower
Your memory, just a whisper now
Never remembered cause you have forgotten
To make a difference
You left nothing for anyone to remember
You were too busy to care
Your thoughts selfish, and uncaring
As you looked upon your neighbor in distress

Instead of thinking they might need you
You looked away - in utter disgust
Don't let the world deceive you, with thoughts of fear and terror and more
That if you stopped to help a stranger you might be hurt if you cared
Hey, that might be you or me one day...
We do not know the roads which lie ahead
Or what will happen to our homes in an earthquake
Or a flood?
Who knows what plight might befall us
Or what tomorrow brings
Reach out with a heart of compassion,
Touch a neighbor or a child
Whose life may be changed
Because you dared make a difference
By that moment in time
When you stopped to help
A man in need
A child crying out

Who knows what will happen
That stranger you helped along the way today
Might turn out to be somebody tomorrow
Dont be as so many before you
Who rushed by and never stopped this morning
Not really caring
Too busy to stop

Who knows what would have happened if they only stopped
Touched with a heart of compassion
They might have made a difference
In one life along life's roads

Maybe sat, and talked with him for a while
What if you changed that man's life today
Cause you stopped for a moment and gave that man your time
Or gave him your coat as he shivered so
or just gave him a hug, even though
He was dirty, and smelled, and needed the touch of a human hand
Who knows what may happened to that stranger you passed
If you stopped and gave him a helping hand

Maybe he was an angel in disguise
Or just a person who needed some hope in this life
And you stopped to make a difference this day
Maybe one day he will remember your words
And write stories for all the world to read
Forever remembered - by the words of this man

How do you know that you won't make a difference today
One person loved, one life spared; who knows what impact you may have
In that moment in time, when you stopped to help that man
This faceless stranger
that you lent a helping hand

Who knows what lives he may touch...

So do not hurry by that stranger today
Make a difference - stop and listen
Touch the heart of stranger you see
Show someone you care
You never know
Where those words will go

Cause maybe that man will remember you someday
Cause you stopped today
Maybe in that moment you will change the annuals of time
The life of a stranger
Who in his utmost despair,
Remembering your kindness
Will change his life
And remembering your kindness forever more
May move nations by compassion which he feels
Remembering who stopped & helped in his loneliest moment
Gave him hope for tomorrow- and changed him
Forever - Who knows what difference you made
Maybe he will write books someday, or poems
Or head a nation someday
You never know what a difference you can make

A moment in time
Along lifes road
Can change history -
You never know what a difference you can make
'Til you stop to help that stranger on the road
You planted seeds of hope
And changed
The world this day
Who knows what a difference you can make
When you stopped to help - you started a garden full of love
By stopping to make a difference today
You changed one man's heart
One seed at a time

Gloria Shepherd
September 30, 1998

TREASURES IN HEAVEN