Walking a Mile

Have you ever wondered what it was like to live back in Jesus' day, or wished you lived during a time when things seemed simpler? Those things seem to easy to want to "walk a mile" in someone's shoes who lived during those times. But when it comes to hard situations and situations we don't like, we never want to walk a mile in those shoes. Or when it comes to seeing someone's story from the outside, we judge, but in all reality, if we walked a mile in those people's shoes, we'd be happy to go back to our own shoes.

For instance, back when President George Bush was in office, especially during 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, I remember people judging him for his decisions. Some were outraged. Some called him an incompetent leader, one that didn't care, etc. But, although I didn't have a personal behind-the-scenes look at his life and inside knowledge to his life, I had a family member who was. She cleaned his home that is located in mid-Texas, on his Crawford Ranch. At times, he and his wife, Laura, would be there. Once, she was told to go clean his office and she knocked and heard nothing. So she entered with a couple of other girls to clean. She found him kneeling on the carpet, deep in prayer, alone, by himself. This was relatively soon after 9/11 happened. He then asked the girls to pray with him. He told them that so often he didn't know the answer to decisions he needed to make and that praying was his only way to get answers, peace and guidance. He also told them that he wanted prayer, because he knew difference decisions he was making was against popular vote and that he'd be judged. He said he didn't know why God was leading him in certain directions, but that he was going with the peace.

The media, and a portion of America spent their days and nights tearing him apart, but little did they know that behind the scenes, he was desperately seeking God to find a path of peace in his decisions. As the President of the United States of America, I bet half the people sitting around, typing behind screens with all their comments on what a bad job he was doing, wouldn't really want to be in his shoes for even half a mile. Leading a country is probably one of the hardest jobs there is, whether you're a good person or not. Have you noticed how most presidents go into office with regular color hair and come out mostly grey? I would never want to walk in their shoes, unless God called me to it, which He's not.  :)

My point is, so often a person will share a story, a thought, a comment, an opinion and we never know how they came to that conclusion. We don't know why they're hurting. We don't understand why they're raising their kids that way. We don't know why they think such and such. The other day, I wrote a blog that was honest with my feelings, rightly or wrongly, on missing friends and things of that sort. For the most part, I received some really good, kind, sensitive responses. Then a few trickled in saying I was selfish, full of wanting pity and needing to "just get over it." I had to call my mom about a few comments, because I was literally shocked by one response. I wasn't sure how to respond. My Mom reminded me that they've never walked a mile in my shoes and didn't know what it was like to lose all your friends you'd had your entire life from age 5-21, nearly 22 years old. Maybe I was having a moment of stress, sadness and frustration. But, most haven't walked a mile in the shoes of those of us who have gone through losing all the friends we have ever known. It's one of those things that people think they understand the situation, yet there is no way they can know except for what is told to them.

So instead of assuming we know everyone's reasoning behind different decisions, let's assume we don't know. I am guilty of this too. I am guilty of thinking, "how on earth do they think that's ok?" or "why do they do that or say that?" when in all reality, I am thinking from the shoes that I've walked in my entire life, not their shoes. And if you want to walk a mile in their shoes, realize you'll probably never really understand. You'll never know how many nights they laid awake, crying, praying and asking God for guidance. You'll never know the hard decisions they had to make to get them where they're at. You'll never know the pain they hold from making those decisions, or the attacks they've gotten for it. All of us have struggles. All of us have pain. All of us have stories and journeys and no one knows better than we do the amount of struggle we've gone through. So let's determine to love, not judge. Lift up, not put down. And don't say anything if you can't say something nice! :) Always a good, golden rule!!!