Well hello again blogging world

Well, I'm going to have to be honest. I went on a mission and forgot I had a blog. I forgot about my days as an editor-in-chief for a nonprofit organization and would have forgotten about my love for writing had it not been for the weekly emails I sent to friends and family about the adventures, mishaps, and life-shaping events during the year and a half I spent in America's Heartland sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. Recently, after being home a couple of months, one of my faithful-mission-email-readers asked if I had a blog, and I remembered I did! So, hello again world! It's good to be back and have somewhere to share the thoughts on my mind.

My first topic of thought comes from a religion class I attended last night. Chris, the guest speaker of the night, introduced himself as a psychologist and so my interest was instantly piqued. He wrote the word behavior on the white board and my therapist self was saying "No joke" as Chris proceeded to talk about our society's heavy focus on behavior. Then, he took the topic deeper as he talked about motivation and intent behind behavior and how we treat others, a topic highly ignored by society as a whole. Ultimately, he explained, there are two different ways that we see people: 1. As a person, or 2. As an object. A topic I had explored before but one that was good to revisit.

Each of us has feelings, hopes, dreams, desires, likes, dislikes, wants, needs. We are acutely aware of these things. When we see someone else as a person, we realize that they too have feelings, hopes, dreams, desires, likes, dislikes, wants, and needs as well. We seek to be understanding of them. We give them the benefit of the doubt.

Unfortunately, oft times we see others as objects. The people in front of us in line at the grocery store become obstacles to us as they are the only thing between us and our next pursuit in life. We suck-up to our boss and use them as a vehicle to our success. Our struggling friend becomes irrelevant to us when that oh-so-important text pops-up on our phone. We allow fellow children of God to become seemingly lifeless objects in our path.

I found Chris' point intriguing and all too true. My initial thought was "Oh no, not me! For a living, I spend my time helping people know that I see them as a person." But as I thought about it, I realized that even moments before I had been seeing others as objects, and it was a wake-up call to me. It is something about which each of us should stop and think. So maybe the next time someone cuts us off in traffic or a loved one says something hurtful or we feel we're going unnoticed or unloved, we can remember that we're surrounded not by lifeless objects, but by other people with thoughts, feelings, insecurities, pains, hurts, troubles, and hearts. We're all children of God, eternal brothers and sisters, here to help each other along in this mortal sojourn. Let's remember that. I know I'm going to try to be better.