Caring

When someone asks who you care about, who comes to mind? Maybe a parent, a child, a spouse, a sibling, a friend, a church family, perhaps even a co-worker. Who ever it is that comes to mind, if you're honest, it's probably because they care for you in return.

Watching the movie "Radio" the other night, I was struck by one of the comments made by Coach Jones' wife. Her words are simple, yet profound. "It's never a mistake to care for someone, that's always a good thing." It's one of my favorite lines in the whole movie.

Some days, however, it's hard for me to believe that as always being true. I mean, what happens when you care for someone, and they use it to take advantage of you. Or when the person you care for just throws it back in our face. Or even when your caring isn't appreciated at all. Then there's when you care for someone who doesn't care for you back, and it's likely never will either.

What do we do on days like those? Do we just shrug it off and continue to care for people no matter what they've done to us? Do we let the multiple negative reactions to our caring change our ways to the point of we don't allow ourselves to care for anyone anymore? Or do we use those interactions to make us wiser?

I'd like to say it's the last one for me, but if I'm honest, I'm proned to just curl up in my shell, and block everyone out, whether they've hurt me or not. I think to myself, "if they can't get close, then I can't get hurt." Which is not true at all. By shorting myself of close relationships I am being hurt. Even if I don't think I am, isolation hurts me more than betrayal.

I guess my question/challenge is this: How do we care for those who either don't  care for us in return, misuse our caring, or simply that we just don't know?

Listen to the chorus of this song and let it challenge us to love/care for other's the way Christ would: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpx40JJLQxw