As human beings each of us know how to put on a good front. . We walk into a place that is filled with happy people (we think they are, anyway), and someone asks us how we are doing, and immediately we say "Fine", when all the time we are dying on the inside. A quote from Thoreau comes to mind as he states in one of his essays, “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation".
A couple of days ago I had a call from a man who said that he wanted to sit down and talk to me about some matters in his life. Last night he came, and we spent a couple of hours together. As he poured out his story of financial problems, I was brought up short, because I would have never known his family was in such shape. Their faces have always been happy ones when we have run into each other in the community. Their kids are well, they live in a nice house, and drive good cars. They seem to be a living example of the American Dream.
But under that veneer of satisfaction with life, there can lie a deep current of unease and maybe even the desperation that Thoreau speaks of.
I can know of this family's situation, because the man chose to confide in me, perhaps hoping for some wise counsel or, at the very least, looking to find a willing listener. I not sure about the wisdom, but I can listen.
What about all those others out there, people that I see on a regular basis? What lives and concerns are hidden behind those smiling faces? Can I ever know the stories, or do I need to? What is God trying to tell me, even as I sit and think about all of this?
Is it to be just more aware around people that I meet? Is it to pray for folks whose lives contain things that I can't even know?
I'm not really sure of the implication of all of this, but I do know that I will listen more closely, that I will look more carefully, not for the sake of gossip, but from the standpoint of prayer and help.
God, help me to consider others and what they might be going through, right now.
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