Practicing our Humanity
Do you ever get frustrated with people? Well I do. These thoughts came flooding into my brain as I was thinking of situations that I'm seeing, situations where we as people are not treating others the way we would like to be treated. We all have situations in our own lives and ones we see around us that just make us shake our heads. These thoughts are not meant to be harsh but are real feelings we can all have sometimes.
My head is FULL of thoughts...I have so many questions. What is wrong with us as people, as human beings? Have we become so insensitive that we can not see and respond appropriately to another human being that is hurting? Are we so proud that all we can say or think is how "we" would never act like that or think that, or feel that way? Have we become so calloused and self-righteous that we can not feel another's pain and do SOMETHING to relieve it?
It seems to me that we can go around in this phony bubble pretending that everything is ok, hiding who we are and what we are going through. We often choose to overlook our own pain and the pain of another and go on. Is it wrong to hurt, to be beat up by life to the point we want to give up? Is it wrong to succumb to the attacks life brings and want to give up? If it is then a lot of us are wrong a lot!!
Is it me or are our relationships so superficial that when someone is actually real and vulnerable we can't handle it, we run away or reject them and look away like we don't see what they are facing? Must we always pretend to be whole and thus never get whole? If our so called Christian friends, family or the Church can not reach out to us with the love of Christ then who will?
Are we really so afraid to be human, to have feelings and frailties, flaws and problems that we have to put on an act around everyone? Do we all just go around in this pretend "Christian" world and fake our way through life or until we can not take it any longer?
I am so tired of phony people and phony relationships. I want something real, something lasting, and someone to let my hair down with and not be judged and condemned or thought less of because I struggle or have an issue you don't have. It's so easy to judge someone who is going through a problem that you've never faced. We can be quick to give an answer from experience we don't have. But when you've had personal experience with an issue, it develops compassion in your heart when you see others who are facing it. It says of Jesus that He "was moved with compassion" and then acted. He was moved to understand and to help. It does not say He was moved to give His opinion or judge their situation.
We don't always do or say the right things, we are all broken people. If I hurt you, can't you just tell me and let us deal with it like adults and go on loving each other? If I disappoint you can't we just talk about it? Do we have to reject each other over being human? Can I find anyone who is truly willing to stick with me and help me work on me till I get it right?
Did Jesus just die for the elite, the perfect, the all together crowd without struggles and problems, I don't think so. When will we all learn that we are all in this together, as the human race on this planet!! We all hurt, we all sin, and we all make mistakes. Can you just love me in the bad times as well as the good? Can we go through hell and high water arm in arm together and hold each other up or do we have to do this alone?
What does it really mean to "LOVE ONE ANOTHER"? I don't think we really know sometimes to be honest. Love is being willing to lay your life down, be inconvenienced, lose sleep, or give my finances that I want to keep, for someone, it's not easily offended when someone disagrees with you, it is patient with people you want to strangle, it's not prideful or rude, doesn't insist on having it's own way or to always be right, it is not touchy and bears up under whatever might come and is ready to believe the best of every person, 1 Cor. 13:4-7. Do any of us really do this for other people who are unlovely and hurting? Do we take the time to put ourselves in anothers shoes and understand how they must feel or why?
But I want to be better...to truly be a friend to someone. I want to grow in my relationships and the way I treat others. I want more from the people I love and want to give them more of me. Jesus help us all to be what you meant for us to be and not just what we think we should or ought to be. Help us to truly care for others like you care for us not expecting anything in return but giving out of our hearts with the compassion we ourselves would like to receive.
Make us humble....
Make us real....
Make us vulnerable....
Make us human...