When’s the last time you made a mistake?

I’ve been debating how to write this post and I’m sure I’m still going to botch this. It’s worth discussing though. Oh, and this is my blog so I do what I want. 😉

Compassion – sympathetic concern for the suffering of others.

Let’s be honest… Compassion isn’t always something we do well. Think about our response to certain types of things. We are selective with how we care.

International hunger may move us, but not have any concern for homeless (they can’t sleep on the benches in our neighborhood! Never mind they have no other place to sleep).

I will not outline every example because they are many. We make decisions about people based on how we see them and the things they do/have done. It doesn’t matter if we’ve done the exact same thing in our past. You had a baby out of wedlock when you were in your teens, but now you’re in your 60s and you show disapproval for the 17 year old in your church who is going through the same thing? Hm.

I’m not pretending I don’t judge or respond to people suffering in the correct way. I’m just making mention of the ways in which we show we lack compassion or care for each other.

It’s happened at work. You get the patient who’s a drug seeker/user, smoker, noncompliant GDM. It’s easy to look at them and treat them like they are beneath you. How could they inject that poison into their veins and put themselves/baby at risk? Why are they so deep in their addiction? Who do they think they are??

What keeps me grounded, keeps me from slipping into that person that stops caring is the reminder that I could be in the exact same position.

We all make mistakes. All of us. There isn’t one person on this planet immune to it. To say you’d never find yourself in a situation like that is to say you’re perfect and won’t run the risk of tripping up.

No one is that good. None of us is good by our own strength. Period.

So all that should work to remind us to close our mouths, open our ears, and allow another person’s lived experience to change us for the better. You may never know what it’s like, but you can give them the necessary hand up because you do know what it means to struggle.

From one human to another