"Do You Know Me?"

     Because of social media, the date of our birthday is sent out to all those we have contact with on the internet.  As my birthday arrived I receive birthday wishes from friends just down the block to friends, as far away as Alaska and Costa Rica.  The thing that I found interesting was I could tell the relationship I had with them by the way I was addressed.  Classmates and those that are my piers called me Tom, former students and their parents called me Mr. Brandon, then there are those who called me Coach for the time they spent playing on one of many ball teams.  As we go through this life we are many things to many people, each of them knowing something about us but none of them knowing all there is about us.  There are things that only those that are the closest to us know and even then, there are somethings that we keep only to ourselves.  I remember working on a project one day with several other men some that I did not know very well that a question was posed to me.  As I was working with a shovel, covered with the mud that I was trying to dispose of he asked, “What do you do for a living?”  I paused wiped the sweat from my forehead and said, “I’m an elementary school teacher.”  His reaction was one of laughter and replied, “I would have never guessed that.”  To this day I’m not sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.  How well do you really know those around you?  The more time we spend around them the more we know, but even then, it is only what they want us to know.  Did you know that you said hello to someone recently that is dealing with severe depression, or someone that is so lonely from the loss of a loved one that they don’t know what to do?  That person that you set next to doesn’t know how they are going to pay the bills next month because of the loss of their job.  There is the parent that is smothered by the health problems that their child is going through.  From the one that you wish you could be like, to the one that you are thankful you’re not, they each have things they are dealing with in secret.  Hebrews chapter eleven is often called the chapter of the faithful.  It lists those who through faith were able to overcome the problems of this world.  We may not think of people like Abraham, Isaac, Joseph, or Moses as having difficulties with everyday problem but they were human just like you and I and with it came the struggles that we all have.  If you read the chapter I think you will find, like I do, that the difficulties that they went through far outweigh the things that often plague me.  Chapter twelve starts with great words of encouragement: Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.  I believe the writer of Hebrews is saying, “Hey if these guys can do it so can you.”  It is not that your struggles are less or of a trivial nature it’s just the knowledge that you can overcome.  As we greet each other every day let us realize, we each have our struggles, and we are not alone.  There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it (1Cor. 10:13).  My prayer for you today is one of strength, you can overcome, we’re all in this together.