Everybody Has Something

We live in the world of ME.  We know about the ME GENERATION, who have been taught to think the world is all about themselves. Parents have brought them up to think life is about making your own way.  Seeking opportunities for yourself.  That it's okay to be a "me-first" sort of person.  That you need that attitude in order to get ahead, get a job, be fulfilled.  Be number one in your life.

It's terribly tempting, when you get older, to talk about yourself.  Particularly, about your aches and pains, your new knee or other surgeries.  After all, those are the things that hurt.

I had a hospital week in the fall.  It was a "near miss."  Insurance offered me home care for three weeks.  My caregivers said I needed a walker.  It felt like a defeat, as if I needed to explain it to people.

I didn't.  Lots of people have wheels where we live.  Something to steady us, to help us get places.  I hope to graduate, but, who knows?

And along the way I realize other people have their dependencies.  A wheelchair to ride in.  A walker to push and stay upright.  A cane to do the same.

And those who can walk unaided, walk slower and slower.  And even those who don't, show that they hurt.  They've had a surgery.  The "One Horse Shay" is breaking down.

Finally, you realize you're there to encourage others.  Because many of them bear greater burdens than yours.  Their lives are in danger.  There'll be a funeral coming.  It's the way of the world. It's life.

Our own aches and pains can help us be sensitive to what others are going through.  Sensitive enough so that we do not "pass by on the other side," ignoring the wounded, lonely, hurt lives around us.

It takes so little to stop and ask how it is today.  Maybe there'll be new details, maybe not.  But, just a word helps so much.

Jesus was a great listener.  He had deep and perfect vision.  He could see all the way to the heart of things.  And always He had an answer.  Quite frequently a totally unexpected answer to a wounded person's need.

There was, in fact, healing in His speaking.  We too can have that power.  Just being with Jesus ourselves can relieve so many things.

We can become listeners, too.  We can touch some places.  We can join the Great Physician in His work.  God wants that.  Let's try.