Be kinder than necessary

It made me think of how easy it is to judge others, to look on the outside and be jealous, to be judgmental, to think of ourselves as better-than or less-than others because of what we see on the outside. We do it with co-workers, we do it with people at church, we do it with people on the streets, we do it with people sitting next to us on buses, on trains, on airplanes, we do it just about everywhere we go.

We assume. 

But the truth is, every human being–every human being–is fighting some kind of battle.

• addictions to drugs, alcohol, porn, work, food, unhealthy relationships, gambling, spending. 
• mental illnesses
• chronic pain
• the fall out of painful divorces
• cutting and self-harm
• struggling children
• caring for ailing parents
• past abortions
• cancer 
• legal troubles
• longing for a child, a spouse
• shame, shame, and more shame
• eating disorders
• the trauma of sexual abuse
• the deep wounding of physical and emotional abuse
• confusing sexuality
• hurting marriages
• shattered dreams
• broken relationships
• death of a spouse, of a kid, of a friend, of a family member 
• loss of jobs
• debilitating fear
• homelessness
• near homelessness
• being bullied
• insecurity and unworthiness
• church woundedness
• financial distress
• pressure to succeed 

You name it, someone’s struggling with it.

It’s probably the guy at the grocery store or your neighbor or the woman you are standing next to at a soccer game or your mom or your dad or your kid or the person on the pew next to you or the one with the microphone or the one opening the bible or the one with big letters behind their name on their business card or the one holding a sign on the street corner or the one writing you a ticket or the one annoying the hell out of you for some weird reason or the one teaching your kids or the one fixing your car or the one you are sitting next to on the bus or the one standing in line in front of you at social services or the one who just came out as gay or the blogger who just wrote something that pissed you off or the one who signs your paychecks or the one who leads your small group or the one who stumbles out of the bar drunk or the one who keeps posting irritating things on facebook or the one picking up the bag at the food bank or the one paying for their groceries or the one smiling as they walk across the basketball court in a gold dress and wave to the crowd.

Yup, everyone’s fighting some kind of battle.

God, give us eyes to see beyond what’s on the surface. Give us ears to listen beyond what we hear. Help us learn to live without assuming, without judging. Give us hearts filled with compassion because of our shared humanity, our shared experience, our shared trying-to-make-it-through-the-day-as-best-we-can-despite-the-obstacles, our shared desire to be known and loved and accepted not for what’s on the outside but for what’s on the inside, too. No less-than, no better-than.

No less-than, no better-than. 

Let’s be kinder than necessary. Everyone’s fighting some kind of battle.