Do you now or have you ever felt like you were someone's second choice? Maybe it's a friendship that has stayed in the same spot forever. Have you ever been asked to do something and you get the feeling there's an ulterior motive? You find out later there was. How about being in a room full of "friends" who really aren't your friends at all. Ever feel used? Taken advantage of? Overlooked? Dismissed? Ever feel people don't take the time to get to know you because you don't fill a need in their lives at that moment or your life is too "different" from theirs that they can't "relate" to you? Do you ever find that you have much to offer and no one asks for your expertise? Doesn't see you have talents and doesn't care. You're not fun enough, outgoing enough, involved enough. You don't know the "right" people. Have you been on the outside looking in? The square peg in the round hole? The last to know? The outsider. The one standing by awkwardly because the conversation doesn't include you and no one cares. It's so about "them" that you become invisible. You scream on the inside, I'm standing right here. Can you see me? I can hear you, yet you can't hear me. Maybe you aren't MVP. Wrong family name. Wrong political views. Wrong upbringing. Just wrong all over the place in someone else's eyes. Well, you're not a player. You're not number one. You're not even near the field! You can't boost any egos because no one cares what you think anyway. You are replaceable, expendable, and you won't be missed. In fact, you're in the way. You don't join in when the gossip starts, and that doesn't help your popularity at all. You become an alien. You don't look like anyone and can't recognize your own anymore. You are a towel on the locker room floor, used and tossed aside. You may even be asked to clean up a mess or two. Again, ulterior motives. Disagree with them and you are on the list. Remember, you're second choice. You don't have a right to your opinions unless "they" agree.
Don't be the thoughtless offender above. Don't even come close. Don't show a smidgen of that in your heart or your behavior. It's godless behavior, and that is sin. Yet I see it, experience it, hear about it, and it makes me heartsick to see people disregard another human being. For what reasons? Very unintelligent, emotion-driven excuses.
I've said this before and I will say it more and more. People walk around with baggage bigger than you know or could understand. Some people have so much pain in their lives that they can't possibly "perform" to your expectations. They can't "clean it up" to suit you. Stop looking at the face value. Stop evaluating people to see where they can benefit you, and instead work on giving them something valuable. Stop making sure that person is a good "fit" in your life and see where you can make an odd-shaped hole for someone who needs you. Love someone else. It's that simple. It's simple and it's difficult, but it's what we have to do. What's in it for you? Nothing.
What's in it for God, who told us to love one another? Everything. Is that enough for you?
No comments:
Post a Comment
Words Matter. Choose them carefully.