in common

Suppose we pick up a pencil and make a list of all the stuff that is making life tough right now. Write down all the challenges, trials, frustrations, dissapointments, abuses, losses. If ten of us got together and compared our lists we'd probably be able to order our lists - I'd find out that my stuff isn't nearly as overwhelming or serious as yours. You'd find out that though overwhelming, you have less on your list than she does. Soon we'd see that ours are not as great as the problems of the one at the top of our compilation. Then we'd realize that by the sheer evidence of our own list, he at the top of our list would merely be in the middle of another's group and clear at the bottom of someone else's.
If we looked specifically at the items on the lists, we'd probably begin to notice how interconnected we and our lists are. We'd find that we are involved in the challenges of the people around us. I'm the cause of three challenges and frustration on his list. He is causing me problems with some specific thing. I have the solution for 3 things on someone's list, he for two on mine.
Maybe the whole silly procedure began by each of us complaining about our own stuff, and we were made to feel better about our own by becoming aware some else's. Then we go a step beyond and realize that through one another we can eliminate lots of stuff on our lists. We can share the stuff that remains, thus requiring us to compile our lists horizontally or even circularly, rather than vertically, because none of us are on top of the list anymore.
We begin sharing and bearing together, and a bigger discovery is made. Your stuff is lighter on my shoulders and mine on yours. My stuff is lighter on my shoulders when I'm carrying yours too. We begin to realize why there is us instead of me.
Thanks to my peeps who trust me enough to risk my dropping their stuff from my shoulders. Thanks for allowing me to listen in, and to cry and sing into your lives. Sometimes it's easier to cry than to sing. Thanks for challenging me to sing too. Thanks for crying and singing into mine. For the Father of all compassion comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. So often that comfort comes to us through those around us. Comfort flows.