Hidden Hurts and Silent Sorrows

It was a training video put out by a fast-food chain.  I remember it clearly, even though I viewed it years ago, and I can’t recall if it was Wendy’s or KFC.  But the point was profound, and it left its message strongly imprinted on my memory.

It showed the restaurant on an average day.

The dining room was filled with people, all enjoying their mid-week meal.  Various ages, individuals, couples and families sat around the tables

• A grandma with her 2 grandsons
• A young mom with 3 kids under 6
• An older couple sharing one burger and 2
         cups of water.
• A wrinkled man with distracted eyes.
• A smiling-eyed woman with a colorful scarf.
• A teen sitting in the corner, plugged in, food
        wrappers askew.


What made it remarkable was what happened next.  Above each person, one by one,  appeared a word bubble, and in each was described the significant circumstance of their life that week:
• Grandma got news of her glaucoma’s progression, leaving her on a countdown to blindness. How long would I continue to enjoy outings with my grandsons?!
• The young mom worried -how soon would her husband find work after his job ended that day? How will we pay the bills?!
• The older couple heard from their daughter on the East Coast: “Can’t come for Thanksgiving”  Again we’ll be alone! As they’d been for Easter, and last Christmas
• The wrinkled man had no news in his day. He was all alone today. As he is every day.
• The smiling-eyed woman was glad for the 5 day reprieve before her next round of chemo.  This is the time she felt almost alive again, even if my hairless scalp & drying skin tries to convince me otherwise!
• And the teen? He was eating alone again, because mom was working, and dad…well, I wonder where  dad had gone all those years ago!?

The point of the video? Everyone has an individual story, and for many, that story involves a burden that most know nothing about.  And so a smile, a kind word, a thoughtful gesture…these can make a difference.  And so the company encouraged its workers to look past the “plain” people to offer personal kindness & courtesy. You never know how you may impact another’s world with simple kindness.

The parallel I draw is to the community of faith.

For many who smile and walk past you on a Sunday morning, there is a burden that is quietly carried or a sorrow that is silently born.   Even those who laugh with you about the trivial, or who ask you about your job/family/health,  or who converse about the commonplace as you stand across from her.

It may be that her life has a place that is hurting, broken, straining, mourning,  frazzled,  hard.
For some, excruciating.

Yet, she asks God for help, gets out the door, and moves forward.

If you perused a crowd on Sunday morning,  and info bubbles about another’s burdens and heartaches were made known, would it impact you?
Because the bubbles are non-existent, but the hidden hurts & silent sorrows are not.
You never know how you may impact another’s world with simple kindness, interest, or compassion.

But now, you know.

What Comes Most Easily

Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire, he breaks out against all sound judgment. 
Prov 18:1

On the first day of our Ladies’ Bible study whose focus was “Community”, I read this verse in the regular course of my reading schedule.

I smiled at its timeliness.

It says it well, doesn’t it?
And then I cringed as I realized it speaks against the natural tendency of all of us--
Withdrawal. Keeping to ourselves. Hiding. (Though we wouldn’t call it that.)

I suppose one could psychologize for paragraphs on why this is.
One could theologize throughout the pages of Scripture on why this is.
But….my simple thought for this post…to myself and all of us:

Follow the sound judgment of this Proverb to resist this tendency:

Instead, plunge into the mainstream of “Body Life” (Rom 12/I Cor 12). Take steps toward others, toward active involvement, toward transparency and trust.  Trust God to take the risk.

We do this to the joy of our own soul and the encouragement of others.  God’s wise counsel is to get involved in the gathering of group body life AND in individual relationship with others.

Instead of sputtering, struggling-- then eventual settling-- in the murky waters of alone-ness.
(Can’t you remember the counsel of your mom  when you were a child? “Don’t swim alone”)

Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire, he breaks out against all sound judgement. 
Prov 18:1