Don’t hate me, but I’m going to let out my true self. I love country music…at least the new stuff. I’ve been known to play it from time to time. I was listening to my new favorite by Kenny Chesney called “Get Along.” The second verse starts like this: “Saw a model on a billboard, 1-800 get to know me, Wondered if she was photoshopped or were her eyes really that lonely? Have you noticed lonely eyes? They’re out there. People pretending to have it together, but they don’t. They’re lonely. It seems to me, that among other things, the cure for lonely is “stop waiting for somebody to meet your needs.” Instead, reach out, care, love someone, help someone, think about others before yourself. It’s counter-intuitive, but it works.
One practical way to do this is to see others as valuable to Jesus. In other words, to see people the way Jesus does. It’s been said that you will never look into the eyes of someone Jesus does not love. What do you see when you look at people? People, who look lonely? People in pain? People rushing around? Don’t you love what the Psalmist says in Psalm 146:8, “The Lord opens the eyes of the blind.”Too often we are blind to the pain and loneliness of others.
You might even try some other things in the chorus from Kenny Chesney. “Get along down the road, we’ve got a long long way to go, scared to live, scared to die, we ain’t perfect but we try. Get along while we can, always give love the upper hand, paint a wall, learn to dance, call your mom, buy a boat, drink a beer, sing a song, make a friend, can’t we all get along?”