“Just as you want others to do for you, do the same for them.” Luke 6:31 CSB
This morning on the news I saw a story about a young Mom in Alabama. She received an anonymous letter from one of her neighbors. The letter stated her over grown yard needed to be cleaned up. According to this neighbor, her lack of yard work was decreasing the property value of the neighborhood. This neighbor concluded the letter by saying, “You can do better. Do better!” The young mom, not knowing what to do or who to address since the letter was anonymous, decided to post it, along with her explanation on social media. Randa Raglan’s three year old son, Jaxen was diagnosed with stage 4 neuroblastoma last October. Since that time he has been in the hospital over 20 times and has had seven surgeries. The cancer is a rare, aggressive type that has attacked his bones. The lives of this family revolve around doctor and hospital visits. A link to their story can be found here. Randa has had more important things on her mind than mowing the lawn.
This story illustrates a very important point we all need to remember; we never truly know what someone else is going through. We can only see in part, not in whole (1 Corinthians 13:12 NIV). We, as a society, judge too quickly. We jump to conclusions that are not true, and we think we know what we’re talking about. What someone meant for harm, God meant for good. As a result of her post, the community has rallied around Randa. Her neighbors have come together and cleaned up her yard. Not only have they cleaned up her yard for her, a Facebook support group has been started as well as a gofundme page. These neighbors have renewed Randa’s hope: “It literally has helped my entire family’s faith in humanity because when you go through something like this, people are ugly or unkind. You know it just lowers your spirit more you know? It just makes you feel like you’re alone but to see so many people that don’t know me come out and do for my family, it’s beautiful.”
My heart aches not only for Randa, but others who are suffering in silence, facing unthinkable circumstances with no one to help them. Whoever wrote the note to Randa did her a favor in the end, it forced her to share her story and get the help she needed. I hope and pray we’ll all remember this story when we jump to a conclusion about someone. I pray we all will remember we don’t have all of the facts, we only see in part. I pray, before we decide on a course of action we’ll take the time to find out more about whatever it is. Everyone on this earth is fighting a battle, most of them unseen. The harder people try to cover their struggles up, the bigger the battle they are fighting. Let’s become people who look past the exterior and take time to find out what battles are being fought, then let’s come alongside them and help them find victory. Let’s be the kind of friend we want others to be to us.
