I read an article about a young girl who suffered a massive heart attack. What was amazing about this young sixteen year old girl was that she was not overweight, she was not unhealthy; in fact she was active in sports, she ate right, she on the outside was the picture of perfect health. Unbeknownst to even her though, something on the inside was killing her.
I think there are probably many people within the church like this young lady. On the outside they play the part excellently. They come to church. They sit in the pews. They raise their hands. They jump. They shout. They do everything they are supposed to, but on the inside there are many things that they are dealing with that they don’t share with anyone.
There are two points I want to make concerning this. Because of this inside pain it is so important that we be sensitive to other people. We never know what people might be going through. Just because someone looks perfect on the outside does not mean that they are not dealing with things on the inside. Yesterday in prayer I was asking God to put a different person in my mind every day. I don’t need to know what they are going through or dealing with, but I was just praying that God would put a different person in my mind so that I can pray for them, call them, send them an email, get them a card, etc. I know what it is like to need a word of encouragement and so I just pray that God would use me to give a word of encouragement to someone who needs it. And I pray that God would give me a word to those who on the outside have it all together, but who on the inside are dealing with things. My prayer is that I would be sensitive to others because I would hate for someone to be dying on the inside while on the outside they are the picture of perfect health.
In addition to being sensitive to other people it is so important that we are transparent as well. I always tell the kids I work with that it is okay for them to take their mask off with me. They can be real and they don’t have to put on an act. This can be a difficult thing, because it is hard to let people know what you are going through, but it is crucial that we do this. If you are going through something, if you are dealing with a particular situation and you don’t know how you are going to make it, I encourage you to pick up the phone and call someone you can trust and let them know what you are dealing with.
To conclude and to summarize: let us look beyond the smile of those around us and let us be sensitive because behind that smile there might be a lot of pain. In addition, it is important that we let people know what is going on behind our own smile.