Our Lives: More Than a Snapshot

Have you ever stopped at a stop light and noticed someone on the side of the road, cardboard sign in hand, asking for money or food? Did you think that maybe he should just go get a job?

Have you ever caught sight of a mother, little children in tow, dressed in her pajamas as she shopped? Did you think that she could have at least have gotten dressed before heading out with her kids?

Maybe you saw a family quietly sitting in their pew at church, all the children spotlessly dressed with hands folded in their laps, waiting for Mass to begin. Perhaps you saw this family and wondered how they could have it all together; their “perfectness” was overwhelming to you.

What about the group of friends you saw laughing as they ate their lunch at a local restaurant without a care in the world? Did you feel jealous that they had each other and obviously had no worries?

A Moment In Time Is Not The Whole Story

It’s easy to look at someone for a brief moment and believe you know their story. Unfortunately, we often judge a person based solely upon a brief snapshot of their life – only what we see at that precise moment. However, often the image we see isn’t an accurate representation of their life, but only a captured moment they are experiencing.

If someone asked you to comb through all your pictures and pick one that represents your entire life, could you do it? Would any picture you chose accurately convey the joy that you felt on your wedding day, or the joy you felt at your daughter’s birth, or could it show the pain you felt at your father’s funeral? Could it show the time you lost your job and felt despair and hopelessness? Could it express the worry you felt when your son was admitted to the hospital?

More than likely there is not one picture you own that can describe your entire life. And yet, when we look at others in their current situations, we often judge them by that single snapshot we see.

We Are Worth More Than One Snapshot

Recently, my children and I saw a man sitting on the side of the road asking for work, money, or food. Many would look at him and say he just needs to get a job; but I looked at him and felt sorrow. This man was someone’s baby at one time – his mother and father held him in their arms and rocked him, sang to him, and loved him. He also was someone’s friend at one time – he probably got in trouble for doing naughty things, cheered up his friends when they were sad, and dreamed together of what they would be when they were older. More than likely he was also someone’s husband and father. I wondered how he got to this place in his life. No one ever dreams of being homeless; surely this is not how he envisioned his life’s direction. I could see that he was more than just a man sitting on the side of the road with a sign in hand. He was more than this one snapshot of his life.

How often do we look at others and judge them by what they are going through right now? Their struggle or their triumphs don’t tell the entire story. Those snapshots are just a quick look into their lives; there is so much more to what is happening to them.

That mom who is at the store in her pajamas may have been up all night with sick kids, had no clean clothes to change into, and just needed to pick up medicine.

That family sitting so quietly and perfectly in Mass may have had pandemonium at home while getting ready – missing shoes, fighting siblings, and yelling parents.

The friends we saw sitting together, laughing without a care in the world at the restaurant, may have found friendship through the loss of a spouse, or children, or some other tragedy that helped them form a unique and lasting bond. They endured overwhelming pain and sadness to find joy in friendship. We can’t possibly know anyone’s circumstances by viewing a brief moment in time.

Imagine a day when you were not at your best; maybe a day that you look back on with shame and despair. Now imagine your entire life being judged by that one day – that snapshot of a moment in time. Would it bother you to have all other aspects of your life disregarded because people were judging you on this one moment of your life? And yet, we often do this to others when we judge them without considering how they got to this place in their lives.

It is also easy to become jealous when we wish we had what others have. We see this moment in their lives and don’t take time to consider the sacrifices, the pain, or the suffering it may have taken for them to get to this point we are witnessing. We only see what we don’t have and what we wish we did. It’s important to stop and realize that each person has experienced a lifetime of events leading up to this one moment we are witnessing.

Don’t Ignore the Whole Photo Album

Life is fluid. It moves and changes, and as it does, we do as well. We are not the same today as we were yesterday or even more so, as we were months or even years ago. The snapshot of our life at this very moment is not likely to represent everything about us – not today, and certainly not years from now. If our snapshot doesn’t represent every aspect of ourselves, why do we insist that the snapshot we see of others fully represents them?

We need to be gentle in our observations of others. When we treat others with kindness instead of judgment, hope instead of criticism, and love instead of condemnation, we stand to elicit a smile which changes the snapshot of that person’s life altogether. It also changes our own.

When we treat others with respect and dignity, abandoning judgment and jealousy, the picture we take of our own life is one we can look back on with happiness and joy knowing that we were following Christ’s example of loving others where they are at and treating all people with kindness and love.

We are each more than this moment; more than this day. We are a lifetime of love, happiness, sorrow, pain, hope, successes, failures, and dreams. This snapshot of our life doesn’t tell the entire story of how we came to be, what we are meant to be, and where we will end up. This snapshot gives just a tiny view into the life that God has granted each one of us. The picture may not always be pretty, but that’s alright. It does not define us; it only defines a moment. Remember when you see that man on the side of the road or the woman dressed in pajamas shopping at the store or the family sitting quietly in Mass that these moments are simply snapshots in an abundant collections of pictures.

If you truly wish to know someone, look past this one snapshot and view the entire photo album of his or her life. You may be surprised at the story that unfolds before you.