And over the past month I’ve been thinking about this, how often do we not tell people what we are going through because we don’t want to “burden them” with our problems (but Galatians 6:2 says to bear one another’s burdens) when they most likely have their own problems to deal with or we think that they are going/have gone through “something harder”? I was quite shocked when someone told me that was why they didn’t want to tell me. And let’s be honest, most people probably won’t say that. So now that we know, I think all of us have to do a better job of genuinely asking people about what’s going on in their life and not just asking as a greeting or to make conversation. If you’re on the other side, I would encourage you not to shy away from sharing about what you’re going through even if you don’t think it’s “as hard” as something else the person asking you has gone through. If someone’s genuinely asking and not just saying it as a greeting, we should want to give a genuine response so that the person asking can encourage or pray for you and check in on how things are going. And if you just say everything is fine, (when it’s not) the person who asked can still encourage and pray for you, but they can’t pray for the thing you are going through unless you tell them.
I know sometimes being vulnerable and opening up is hard, (and that there is a time and place,) but if people are genuinely asking about your life, then we should be willing to give a genuine response.
Notes of Joy 