Behind Your Neighbor's Walls

Every day of the week we come into contact with people who seem as if they have it all together. These may be people in our families, on our jobs, on television, in magazines—throughout the world. We continuously compare ourselves to other people but we never really know what they are going behind the façade they act out day-to-day.

I recall an instance a while ago a good friend of mines emailed me while on a business trip. I had touched base with him because he was on my mind. He expressed to me in his reply email that a good friend of his had passed away earlier that week. The man was of the movie star-type: tall, dark hair, deep blue eyes. He was one of top performers in his company, in his industry for that matter, and the "humblest of God’s creatures." He was that person always there to lend a helping hand when needed, no matter what. He was a friend to a lot of people and would truly be weeks. But my friend's friend, sometime on a Tuesday, his friend took his life.

We never know what is going on behind the walls that others put up. A lot of times we ourselves hold onto so many negative emotions. For some reason we have it in our head that whatever the problem may be we can take care of it on our own. But life was not meant to be experienced alone.

In the Bible Jesus says to “love your neighbor as yourself.” But most of us love others a lot more than we do ourselves. Often the reason why we don’t do some things is not because of how we feel about ourselves, but how we feel for others. So many of us are living in self-imposed restraints in a prison we have built brick by brick with the thoughts that constantly engulf our minds daily. On the outside some of us are the most sincere and well put together of people; always willing to lend a helping hand. But imagine for a moment, how much more fulfilling your life can be if you allowed other people to reach in and supply you with the same love you exhibit to everyone else. Imagine that instead of worrying about others thinking we are weak, or we are not who they think we are, we make the decision to improve by reaching out to others for the same help we provide others.

Think of how much better life can be if we can get "behind our neighbor's walls."