Living in a Up and Down World

Wednesday night I went to church with my mother for the fifth and final soup dinner of the year for the Lent season. Besides having soup and talking with others around us they had a speaker each week. To be honest this final dinner was the best of the speakers. The other four speakers had topics that were not what I enjoyed hearing and they did not talk about themselves in the same manner the last speaker did.

He spoke about his life and his search for God and how God found him more than he finding God. Like most of us his journey for God had to deal with a lot of selfishness and why God would want anything to do with us.

We all live in a world where we experience a lot of ups and downs. In his case the speaker lost a son who died and then a few years later his wife that ended in a divorce. He figures the loss of his son had some things to do with their divorce but could not pinpoint exactly the case. It was obvious he still loved his wife and jokingly said he lost his dog in the end too.

I find it real refreshing when people are able to open up about their lives regardless what has happened. It brings humanity in our lives and can actually increase our faith even during difficult times. He mentioned how some people were sympathetic while others told him everything would be alright.

I believe no matter what is going on in another person’s life currently or in the past we may be sympathetic but we haven’t walked in each other’s shoes. No matter what another has or is going through a situation we can’t feel what they feel. I don’t care how much in common our situations may be. How someone reacts or feels in a situation though may be a lot like ours it is still not the same as ours.

If they are willing to listen to what we have to say or we listen to their grief in the end we haven’t walked in their shoes and I won’t pretend that I have. I know this may sound harsh but that is the truth and it is the primary reason we can’t judge another person.

The importance is to listen and if the other person wants our advice than we give it otherwise be there just for them. Remember we might be in a right place now but we can be in the wrong place soon and how do we want others feel when we are in a bad place. Amen!