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.