Hard to Be Human

I’ve found myself saying this a lot lately:

It’s so hard to be human.

Especially among other humans.

Those in our family, workplaces, friendships, online or in the public square.

We are fearfully, wonderfully made, yes!

We are created in the image of God. Amazing!

God knows and loves us just as we are. Absolutely!

AND

We can be absolutely baffling, disappointing, maddening.

To both ourselves and one another.

Especially when we’re under stress.

And who is not stressed and anxious these days?

It feels like we’re living in a time when we’re starving

for real connection and companionship.

But we’re all so tired, busy, overwhelmed and anxious,

who’s got time to sit and listen to one another?

It can be easier to just keep on trucking, numb out or distract ourselves.

And yet, our failure to see ourselves and others clearly,

to know and care for one another,

is killing us.

The misunderstandings, resentment, fears and hostilities

are piling up in and between us.

Who is perfectly happy with the way things are in this country right now?

(Or in your family, workplace, friendships, faith community?)

How do we begin to clear the space between us,

seek paths of healing and reconciliation?

One modest suggestion:

Awareness.

Simple, yet strikingly missing in so many places.

Shine the light of awareness inside.

How are we really doing?

What are we needing and desiring?

(Not the things we think will fill us,

but leave us empty or wanting more of what doesn’t work)

What has us afraid?

What are we grieving?

How do we honor who we really are,

right now, in this very moment,

not how we used to be or wish we were,

or might one day, somehow by the grace of God be?

And we have to try to understand others,

those we call family, friends, colleagues, neighbors fellow citizens.

Especially those who are different from us.

If we are all God’s image bearers,

just think how much God we’re missing when we only stick to those just like us.

There is so much that binds us together as humans –

our desires for our lives, our children, and our world,

our fears and anxieties,

the experience of suffering.

AND we are also really different.

Put together differently.

Shaped differently by our life experiences.

How do we understand, honor, and respect,

even celebrate and learn from those differences?

How do we live and struggle and work and grow together,

in this beautiful, messy multicultural democracy,

trying to create a better world in which we can all thrive?

I think of the poignant line from poet Elizabeth Alexander,

“Are we not of interest to one another?”

There is so much pulling us outward.

I want to keep calling us inward.

What’s going on in you? Really?

How is it with your soul?

Where does it hurt?

What are you longing for?

May the journey inward bring more healing, love, and understanding our way.

And may it lead us to reach out to love and understand one another.

To clear the space between us.

It is so hard to be human.

May we be gentle and kind.

May we lighten the load for one another.

Human among you,

Kimberly