Reminder: People are Great
On Monday, I was reminded of something that we all need to be reminded of at times:
People are great.
Like, when you really get to know a person – most people – if not all – are great. But so often we don’t get to know them, and so we misjudge and miss it.
I was reminded of this on Monday at a funeral that I had the privilege of being a part of. It was for a woman named Courtney who was part of the church I used to be a pastor at. Courtney had a challenging life, filled with health issues from the time she was born. She wasn’t supposed to live to one years old, she wasn’t supposed to live as good of a life as she did given her challenges, even while she wasn’t supposed to get cancer and die at 41.
At the funeral, we heard wonderful remembrances and stories about her life – and it did what really good funerals should do: remind and recall how great a person truly was. Good funerals should make us wish we knew the person better, for who they really were. I walked away sad, not just because we lost a lovely person, but because I would never get a chance to know her better – given how wonderful she truly was.
It reminded me that when you get to really know a person, what you find out is that they’re great.
The problem is, we don’t always have time or capacity or ability – or desire – to really get to know people. I’m as guilty of this as anyone else. We might just know a person a little bit, maybe even just though one or two interactions – and know them enough to know that they can be kind of short-tempered, or they can be kind of rude, or they can be kind of difficult, or they’re not ‘my kind’ of person…and we kind of lump them in that camp, kind of write them off, and that’s kind of the end of that.
We all do this, all the time.
And when we do that, we don’t really get to know the person, and see them for who they are, and experience them as the person they actually are. Because behind every person we know, there’s a story to be told, there’s a road that led them there, there’s baggage they carry, there’s reason why they are the way they are.
No one is the way they are for no reason.
No one is short-tempered because they like to be. No one is rude because they want to be. No one is challenging because life is so wonderful for them that they want to be challenging.
What I have found in my life over and over again – and was reminded of on Monday – is that when you really get to know a person, hear their story, witness their struggle, and see them for who they really are – in spite of what might be challenging – they’re actually great.
And often times, people are great in spite – or because – of what made their life challenging.
I knew that about Courtney before she died, but I wish I would have known that, or rather, known her, even better. It’s a shame it took a funeral to spark that in me.
I want to be better about this…not just because of Courtney…but really, because of Jesus.
Jesus had an incomparable knack for this. He’d see the woman caught in sin, he’d see the hopeless invalid, he’d see the greedy tax collector, he’d see the man trapped by evil’s grip, he’d see the wealthy young ruler – and he wouldn’t write them off, misjudge them, and miss them. He’d see them for who they were behind all of that…and he had compassion for them – he loved them.
In a sense, he thought they were great.
Great enough to give his life for.
Let’s be more like Jesus here. We can’t get to know everyone deeply and intimately…it’s impossible. But let’s believe that underneath what we sometimes experience of people – they’re actually great.
Let’s assume that about people.
Let’s trust that. Let’s trust that God made them in his image, and they were great enough for Christ to die for. Let’s be more like Jesus and give people the benefit of that doubt, and see if we can’t be more kind, more generous, more compassionate, and more loving in the process.
I bet we’d find out that when we do, more often than not, they’re great too.