I wrote an essay last week that really made me think. The topic of the essay was to describe my experience here at Roberts so far and how it has made an impact on me. As you might imagine, trying to sum up the total experience of hundreds of new relationships, difficult courses, unforgiving teachers, long essays, interesting food, and everything else that has made my college experience unique turned out to be no small task.
But there are several things that stick out in my mind about my experience here at Roberts. Since I am a transfer student, the first thing that has distinguished Roberts from my former school is how very down-to-earth and fun people are. I have found so many different people that I can relate to in so many different ways. Above all else, I love that we can talk about almost anything. It’s possible to have conversations with various people about faith, marriage, sex, family, friends, sports, life, religion, politics, God, and almost anything else.
But I’ve also noticed that, despite our ability to talk about all these things, not very many people will actually open up about our real struggles in life. I know we have the ability to be real and authentic when it comes to faith and God, but many of us (myself included) hide these deep personal issues, keeping the hurt bottled inside. Most of us are very weary, I imagine, carrying these heavy burdens around, all the while wearing a mask of carefree happiness.
Maybe you can begin to ask yourself some of these questions, as I have: What would it mean if someone were willing to take the time to minster to your needs and listen to your complaints? Are you in need of a listening ear? Why do we close our eyes and shy away from helping one another? Where does this polite, “respectful” silence surrounding our life issues come from? Who says you have to deal with them all by yourself? Not God. Jesus said, “Come unto me all who are weary and burdened, and I shall give you rest” (Matt: 11:28). If we are to be Jesus-followers, we should also be doing that for one another. As Shane Claiborne said, and Krista Tippett quoted during our Academic Day conferences this past week: “Who we are to one another is one of the most important questions of our day.”
We are all imperfect here, and at times we prefer to hide behind masks rather than face whatever issues exist in our life. It’s a paradox in our nature to hide those things that hurt us the most. Isn’t that interesting? What is it that we fear? Perhaps we fear being judged. Perhaps we just don’t believe we are strong enough and we need the support of others before moving forward. But if we are to be real Jesus-followers in this world today, we need to begin, as Jesus did, making the Word flesh. Just as Jesus put on real skin and bones, action and emotions, got up and walked around in real shoes (or sandals), and started touching real people’s real hurts.
We all long to be understood. We all wish there were someone out there strong enough to break down the walls we build up every day. We hide behind masks, waiting for someone with the courage to look behind the mask and uncover the real person that God intended us to be. Christ has set us free, and we are free indeed, but we still fear, and our fear keeps us from living out our faith. We are like the prisoner Eowyn spoke of in the Lord of the Rings. “What do you fear?” Aragorn asks. She answers, “A cage. To stay behind bars until use and old age accept them.” What habits and struggles, sins or problems have you become a slave to? How can you begin to gain freedom?
My challenge to each of you reading this is article is not necessarily to find someone to talk to about your issues, though I pray you can do that also. My challenge is that you go out and start listening to the needs of others. Ask God to give you eyes to see and hearts to feel the hurt around us all. When Jesus looked out on the crowds, he had compassion on them and saw them as sheep without a shepherd. We may not be shepherds like Jesus, but we can certainly listen and point people towards the good shepherd. We can pray for others, encourage them, and show them the love of Christ. And it’s my prayer that we would all gain strength from sharing our burdens with one another and learning to face challenges together. I challenge you also to read through the book of 1 John, which is all about showing love to your brother. I’ll finish with this challenge from 1 John 3:16 and 18: “We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters… Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions.”
How can we go wrong with love?
