I am very bad at caring. One of the biggest issues I have is that there is a deep-rooted narcissism within my heart. Growing up, I have always been the center of attention, and I never lacked love from my parents. Sadly, as a result, I never learned what it meant to be forgotten or ignored. Projecting my own life onto others, I never learned to care. At least, it was like that until a few years back when I went through depression. That pain really softened up my heart. I started slowly learning the importance of seeing things from other people's perspectives and empathizing with their pain.
There are some caveats to this discussion, as per usual. First, some people just need to reach out. It's easy to convince yourself that no one cares about you, but the reality could be deceiving. There's always a possibility that people do care about you, but they simply cannot see that you are in need of help. Why? Because you never asked! Go ahead and ask your friend to go on a walk, to pray together, to chat, or whatever that you need before you explode with emotions and stress. Please don't fight this battle on your own, God did not intend it that way.
That being said, we can all work on caring more. Care, just because. Look! There's a fellow human being made in God's image whom He valued enough to die for! What are you gonna do about that? Just ignore them because you don't think they're your "type" of person? I surely hope not.
But for real, my temptation is to just leave the people who seem "weird" or "unapproachable" behind for others to deal with while I invest in the goody two shoes and the homeschooler who already exhibits model "Christian behavior". And then everyone decides to do the same as me, and we scratch our heads wondering why the people we ignored are now dealing with depression. Want more of a kicker? It's now WAY harder to help them because they have closed off to the Church. It's time to die to ourselves and exhibit love for ALL people, not just the ones that are easy to love, even Pharisees can do that.
The few people who actually do their best to love everyone are either naturally-born extroverts who have a heart as wide as the sea or people who are pushing themselves (oftentimes self-sacrificially) to love everyone. There aren't a lot of people like that, and surprise surprise, they have a high chance of burning out because they're doing it all by themselves. And surprise surprise, no one cared enough about them to be there for them when they need someone. What a wretched cycle. Now imagine for a second, that if EVERYONE did their best to be invested in each others' lives. Everyone will be able to support one another! If one is feeling burnt out from serving so many, they have people they can fall back on. It's like that game where people make a circle and sit on one another's laps. The body of Christ supports itself.
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