Nobody Knows

His gentle, encouraging smile lies.  No one thinks to ask if he needs the advice he gives.  No knows his lead-shell plans.

"She is such a slut.  Can they not be all over each other all the time?"  Meanwhile she finds her worth in him, a faulty human replacement for a seemingly distant God.

"Gay, much?" Sideways glances and whispered rumors.  He would never tell you he wonders if God made him this way and why He would do that.

It is so easy to proclaim self-righteous indignation.  "No one with decency would say that."  It is so easy to think you know someone.

The heart of the matter is that you don't know.  You don't know that the girl you call a whore was routinely raped since before she could ride a bike.  You don't know that the snake with smooth smile and different girl on his arm each week met his dad for the first time last year.  You.  Don't.  Know.  That the girl with the compulsive, annoying giggles found out yesterday that her mom is dying of cancer at 53.  These are real people.  And only a few.

The filthiest, ugliest, most profane, and everyone else on the spectrum of life still has a story.  And to ignore someone's story to comment on their sin is to claim that our "righteousness" excuses ours.

This, my friends, is what Jesus meant when He told the pharisees "Whoever is without sin, let him cast the first stone."

Empathy is a passionate, messy, tearful, beautiful gift God has given us.  And that is being like Him.

Special thanks to Jenna Jiang for the photo.  View more of her work on Instagram: @chasingyesterday

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