Shouldn't you be minding your own business instead of mine?

"Ma'am, can I ask you a question?" He looked at me, trying not to be embarrassed.  "I hate to be nosy but..." He hesitated as I looked at him, knowing what he was going to say next.  "Did you have surgery on your nose?"

He looked at me with such concern, both for my well-being and in case he had offended me.

I smiled at him and said I had.  He asked if it was because of skin cancer and I replied yes.  We went on to talk of the procedure I had done, had it hurt, did it hurt still, and then--this is key--then he mentioned his wife had found a spot on her nose and was going to have to see the doctor for more treatment on it.

"Big deal, Stef.  We all know you had this done.  We asked about you too.  What makes him so special?"

Can I answer you back in the most loving of ways?  The difference with this man was he asked about me.  He asked about my pain, my procedure, my experience.  He didn't butt in with his own horror tales or to tell me of his Uncle Herman's wife's sister's cousin who had cancer of another sort and how we needed to pray for them.  He asked about me.  He wanted to know about me.  He cared about me.  This stranger in Food Lion that I'll probably never see again took time out of his busy day to confront someone that he felt compelled to offer some sympathy to.

How often, friends, do we hear of another's woes and interrupt that soul to tell of our own miseries?  Do we do this to commiserate with him/her or are we just really so self-centered that we have to have the focus on us all of the time?  Please please please don't take this wrong but instead do this:  the next time you see or hear of someone who is sick, in the hospital, or has fallen on hard times, ask that person if it hurts, if it is okay now, and if not, is there something you can do.  Show this person that you are willing to give two minutes of your time to hear, to listen to the grief s/he is going through.  After all, isn't that what you really want too:  someone to just listen?  Not offer advice, not quote scriptures to you, not tell you about the malpractice suits filed against the doctors three states over for some mishap regarding Aunt Bertha's neighbor's friend Junie--who by the way we need to pray for because that one is in such a state.  Seriously?

Let's stop the gossip.  Let's stop comparing war wounds.  Let's just be still.  Pat that hurting one's hand.  Look him/her in the eye and show your love and concern.  Ask if there's anything you can do--'cause you know pretty much s/he isn't going to ask, that you just listening for these precious moments meant more than any casserole, any "putting you on the prayer list," or any other thing that put you in the limelight instead of the injured one.

1 Corinthians 12:17

If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be?

Be nosy, sisters and brothers.  Let's take care of our other body parts, friends.  We need each part to function.  Let's be sure to give the care needed where it is needed, okay?  Great!