Gilded

Sometimes, I just need to think. And other times, I just need to exist.

Where Highway 74 meets N. Elm sits a coffee shop in the middle of Small Town, USA. Sitting on one of their big, black, comfy couches is where I existed today. Yesterday's paper sat lifelessly in front of me on the wooden table while rush hour traffic waited in line outside. The weather was nice, if just a little windy, and would have seemed gorgeous if not for the ominous black clouds that crowded the sky above.

In such a cute little town, it can become easy to forget that everyone here has problems. It's so easy to just look over the fact that beneath the postcard surface of a picturesque college town, people are letting their issues and imperfections rot. How much of our lives, our surroundings, even ourselves, do we ignore in order to maintain a pleasing appearance that satisfies the status quo? If there's one thing I've learned these past couple years, it's that problems don't go away simply by ignoring them.

So often people try to suppress, extract, or fix parts of who they are in order to fit into the puzzle of society. Maybe it was at someone else's suggestion, or maybe they decided to do it to themselves. (And telling someone else they need to fix who they are in Christ is a prideful thing.) But either way, I see it as not being content with who God made you to be and attempting to contradict that. I know that there have been countless times in the past where I've done things in order to fit in, and being true to who you really are is probably something you can never entirely achieve, but an effort should still be made.

It's really sad to see people making moves based off what they think others expect of them and ignoring what their heart is telling them to do. We need to embrace both who we are in Christ and who others are as well.

But it's also saddening when you take the time to peel back the pretty, happy layer that everyone paints on their skin, and you see what is really underneath. The same thing can be said of an entire school, town, country. However, keeping the rot under wraps just makes it even more rancid than it already is.