Joy here and I didn’t expect to end up in an hour conversation with my friend Karen this weekend when I asked her how she was doing. I didn’t expect her to break down crying. I didn’t expect her to say that she has been lonely and depressed for weeks.
She seemed fine. But don’t we all try to appear FINE when life gets tough? We put on a mask and try to go about life as usual, all the while hiding our hurt and issues.
The simple question, “How are you, really?” can make a huge difference.
My unexpected conversation with Karen reminded me that people around us are carrying more hurt than we probably realize. Every day the people you pass and interact with might be hiding their hurt behind a mask. The person who cut you off on your way to work, that co-worker that got on your last nerve this morning, they may have just lost a loved one or may be in a fight with their spouse. They need to be loved like Jesus. You don’t know what they are hiding today.
As I saw with Karen, simply showing love sometimes helps that mask to come off and you suddenly see the issues that people carry around every day.
I’m learning that loving like Jesus is LEGITIMATELY hard to do, but we are called to do it!