The Automatic Good

    In this world the question, "How are you?" is rarely ever met with an answer other than good. It is usually an immediate answer. I wonder if people even think about the question or their answer. When I'm home, i work at a local grocery store, I ask this question to almost every customer, and when someone does not say "good" i notice. But every time they do say good, it is almost an automatic response, and from their actions they communicate something contrary to that word. Many of these customers i do not know personally, and even though i do not have a personal relationship with them, i can tell they are not doing good. But i do not think that is the worst part of the situation. I think the real issue is with the question not the answer.

    Good has become an automatic response. Something that is simply a response not a correct answer. But the question has become meaningless. It is so often asked, that i believe we have become numb to the question. It no longer holds any weight. I do ask this question to almost every customer. And many times i do not care what the response is, therefore the response: "good". If people think that i do not care, they are not going to give me a correct answer to the question. Yes, the answer is not true, but that is due to the questioner's lack of care, not the answerer's lack of openness. Many times the answerer will not be open even if you do truly care. But the point is not to know everyone's business, but to love. 

    As God's child, i am not called to know, i am not called to pry into people's problems and fix them. Jesus is the answer to their problems, but they don't want to know the answer we have, unless they feel as though we care. A mentor of mine, has often said; "People don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care." As God's child, i have direct access to a lot knowledge, but it doesn't matter if i do not care and if i do not love. God has convicted me, that i do not care. And that question, and that answer is fake. Jesus was never fake. He was simply who He was. Sometimes He physically hid Himself, but He never hid His character. I am called to be like Christ and in order to do so, i must care.