and the One who walks with me on it.

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Don’t Judge a Book by It’s Cover

       On Sunday I was speaking to a man who said three times- just wait until you’re older (he’s only like 10 years older than me); it gets worse…  Worse?  Worse than waking up in pain every day sometimes for weeks- hardly able to walk because your feet are hurting too?  Worse than your neck and shoulders being so tight that every move hurts?  Worse than the constant pain of joints and back?  Worse than the disappearing memory (what day is it?)?  If it gets worse than this, shoot me…  My point is not to complain, but to say I am 47 years old, of a healthy weight, look reasonably well but that doesn’t mean you know what my life is like.

       My niece was mad at a friend who made no effort to visit on her recent trip down.  “She has a car, she should visit me!” she cried.  Little did she know the problems happening in her friend’s life including losing her car due to an act of revenge and the car no longer being safe for her children.  We just don’t know, we just can’t assume.

       ‘Joe has a good paying job so he can afford to replace their car…’  How do we know?  Perhaps all their money goes to helping their mom and dad.  Perhaps they have a child in costly long term care.  ‘Boy, he always looks so tired; he needs to get more rest…’  Perhaps he stays up half the night with a child who has seizures.  ‘Don’t understand why she looks so depressed all the time…’  No job, no income, mounting bills, a divorce, aging parents, one problem after another.

       We all do this.  One of the hardest for me not to judge is a younger person getting out of a car that parked in handicap parking and they have no signs of walking issues.  My very first though is ‘how rude’.  Then I have to remember there were days when undergoing chemo that I was so exhausted a handicap spot would have been too far for me to walk.  We just don’t know…

       Perhaps instead of forcing ourselves to stop judging, we should instead move toward the person and open their cover, after all, books are meant to be read!  Instead of thinking the cover looks scary or sad or angry or cold, perhaps we could ‘read’ a little, get to know the person and they might open up to us some of their struggles, sharing their burdens as we ought.  Maybe the love of Jesus Christ might shine out of us a bit into their lives.  Perhaps we may start feeling more like ‘one body’ when we find out others are struggling too and we have a lot in common.

Do not let each man look upon his own things, but each man also on the things of others. Php. 2:4
Confess faults to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed… Jm. 5:16
Bear one another's burdens, and so you will fulfill the Law of Christ. Gl. 6:2

       Did you ever read a book where the author or character struggled through tough times and how they overcame?  Remember how that made you feel like you too could do it?  “You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men,(2Cr. 3:2)  If we are all books for others to read, then we should let others read the unhappy parts- the struggling parts, the embarrassing parts too.  It will encourage them to go on.  If we only let them see the spiritual ‘doing great’ side, they may get discouraged thinking ‘What’s wrong with me?’  It is better to let the book expose the realities of this journey with Christ.  It might be on the pages of our book that Christ’s love may shine through and someone may get saved.  Or perhaps we will be encouraged to endure by reading someone else’s book.

Reach out- open the cover- take a peek- open your heart to someone new- find out what’s really going on in their life!

And love.  Always love.