The Humanity of it All.

This week at my yearly appointment my doctor came in and took a look at me, asked me a few questions and quickly suggested that I might be anemic.  Pale skin, exhaustion, sore muscles, headache.   I shrugged it off and told her that I believed that it really had to do with the fact that I had a 5 month old at home, a demanding schedule, and that if I could just catch up on some sleep then I might look a little better.

She went with my self-diagnosis, but I still stopped by the store the next day to purchase a multivitamin. 

Just in case.  

I'm not sure why I was quick to dismiss the fact that something could actually be physically wrong with me.  Maybe I didn't want to have my blood checked.  Maybe I didn't want to make my family wait any longer for me to be done with my appointment--which was already running much later than expected.  Whatever the reason, I was quick to dismiss her assumptions.  

And I told her I was fine. 

How many times do we do this?  We tell others that we are fine--but inside we're falling apart.  We struggle with physical and mental and spiritual ailments and refuse to let even our loved ones in on our dirty little secrets.  We want to give the impression that we have it all together, when the truth of the matter is that not one of us is doing anything just right.  All of us fall short in all of our daily things--and no one around here is the authority on anything.  And instead of acknowledging the fact that we aren't perfect and that we desperately need help and/or sympathetic ears, we bottle it up and slap a smile on our faces and edit and filter our lives.  

Just this week I encountered women with lives turned upside down because their husbands made choices that didn't include them or their marriages.  People struggling with depression and self-doubt.  Friends struggling with making ends meet.  Friends who are having to make decisions about insurance and life-sustaining medications.  Friends struggling with guilt and regrets.  And I've got my own little demons and worries and issues that I fight with on a daily basis because I hate the thought of exposing my flesh with the world.

What if we all decided to get out of our shells of perfection and let people see our messy homes and even messier lives?  What if we shared the good and hard parts of our hearts, and took better care of the hearts we've been entrusted with?  Or letting your guard down for the sake of friendship and being transparent with the people within your circles.  We weren't created to go at this alone.

Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up! 

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 NIV