Everybody's Got Their Thing

This week I have been strongly reminded of a phrase that my friend and I coined in college: Everybody's got their thing.  We say this because we realized that each of us, every single one of us, have issues that we deal with in our lives.  We all have struggles or situations or events that can affect who we are and how we interact with the world around us.

We say this for several reasons. First, on the days or at the times when we have to deal with our "thing" and we are tempted to feel sorry for ourselves, we remember that everybody's got their thing.  And although another person may not have to deal with our exact situation- be it medical or familial or financial or emotional or whatever- we are not alone in dealing with something.  When you're the only one with a "thing" it's easy to fall into self pity.  But when everybody's got something, there's no wallowing. 

We also say this because remembering that whomever we are dealing with (or having trouble dealing with, as the case may be) mostly likely has a "thing" in their lives, makes it easier to deal with them. Maybe it's an underlying issue between them and God that they need to work out with him and we need to not let ourselves get dragged into it.  Or maybe it's a situation that for whatever reason has flared up in their life and beneath the surface they are dealing with more than we imagine.  Thinking this way helps me to give grace- to the grouchy cashier or the sassy student or sullen waitress or distant friend- when I would otherwise get irritated.  It also helps me when I'm in conflict with others to remember that their actions or reactions that may hurt me are often based in their own issues, and not based on me. 

And lastly, it helps me build friendships in community.  It's funny how God works- I'd been thinking about this a lot this week and then it was the topic of our morning devotional today.  I love having friendships where we can lean on each other- when the things I deal with flare up, I can talk to them or cry with them or pray together, and when they have bad days they can come to me to talk or pray.  But when we try to live in "island" worlds where we don't have struggles, don't have bad days, don't have "things" we deal with in our lives, true community isn't possible. I read a great Henri Nouwen quote this morning about how no one person is able to hold us up, but when we are able to fall back into a community they are able to support us.  What a testimony it would be if the Christian community were able to live that out! 

I'm sure as the years pass I'll come up with even more great applications for it- until then, just remember, everybody's got their thing.