Climb Into Their Skin

“First of all,” he said, “if you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you’ll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view...until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” (from To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee)

Climbing into someone elses skin and walking around in it? I love this idea!

What a perfect visualization of something I personally don't do often enough.

And let's be honest, it's hard.

It's hard to really feel what somene else feels, to really see what someone else sees.

Especially if we have had no experiences to plug it in to or relate it to.

And I hate to say this, but sometimes it's hard to care.

And I don't mean looking at a picture of an emaciated toddler that needs food and being moved to give.

That's easy to feel for.

I'm talking about the daily, little things.

Someone's shower isn't working.
Someone is stressed out.

Someone constantly struggles with feeling rejected.

I admit, sometimes I stink at this all together. Sometimes I'm so deep in my own world of "fixing myself" or just surviving that I miss it. Sometimes I can't really feel what it's like to be in someone elses shoes. But normally, when it's that difficult, it's because I didn't take the time.

And it seems very clear to me lately...it's important to God (other people).

Lately, I have been blessed with opportunities to really listen to people's lives. To learn from their experiences and seasons that are very different from my own. Just last night I got to spend time with two friends from my congregation. They are the most vibrant, young, interesting people. They are also married with a beautiful daughter (not that those things are mutually exclusive, ha!). They are in seemingly different worlds than me. But I want to learn about where they are at because sometime I will be there, too. It was fun to watch them interact, look around their house, go through photo albums, and be invited in to experience this world they have created...there's no other lesson like it. I learned a lot in those few hours about myself and about them just by watching them. And for a moment, I saw a glimpse of what it would be like to pick up their skin and put it on...to walk around in it for a bit.

I thought:
It must be tough.

It must be beautiful.

It must be fulfilling.

It must be stressing.

It must be wonderful.

It must be testing.

It must be...your life.

(And I think all of those things are probably true)

I want to try more often to put on other people's skin.

Because how else will we learn from one another?