Prayer vs. Empty Condolences

One of my friends performed a social experiment this week on our college campus by responding with ''terrible'' any time someone asked her "how are you doing?" Very disappointingly, nobody on this Christian campus stopped to see what is wrong...many of them didn't even notice. This just brought to attention how a heavy question like "how are you" has been morphed into a simple greeting in which nobody really expects/wants an answer. 

I feel as though, this little experiment can stretch further than this small campus and span into the entire nation. America has grown to be a very self-centered and compassionate society.  We prefer the organizations in which we can just write a check to every month, preferably the ones that take the money out of our account automatically. We can spare to donate money many of the times, and have turned that into our primary way of service because choosing to actually love someone takes work. This is especially unfortunate in a nation with so many Christians; the very people that are called to show the love of Jesus through our actions. 

Seriously, one of the simplest acts of love that we can preform is asking someone how they are and then intently listening to the other persons answers. So many times the people who are hurting and struggling just need someone to listen to them.  Christianity has become so ingenuine (yes I know that isn't an actual word) we perform actions to make ourselves look better...and simply asking how someone is looks good to the public, we can typically get away without actually sticking around to listen. 

Now to sort of change thoughts, my friends experiment got me thinking on what else Christians/the human race does in-genuinely. One action caught my eye as I was watching Letters to God just now: prayer. So many times throughout the movie, which is made by a Christian company, the phrase "I'll pray for you" is tossed around. Someone is crying or struggling in the movie and the next person just lays a hand on that person and says "I'll pray for you". Now don't get me wrong, prayer is great. However this saying has turned into an empty condolence. 

I would like to go around and follow-up when people tell me that they are going to pray for me and see if they actually prayed. Seriously...count the number of times each day that you make a commitment to pray for someone....how many of those commitments do you actually follow through with? So many Christians have made prayer empty. Christians have forgotten the commitment involved in prayer. My favorite is hearing nonChristians say during like tragic events that they will pray for the people involved. It is not uncommon to attend a funeral and hear every other person announce that they are praying for the family. Seriously? When a Christian action has become so empty that nonChristians will openly say it...something is wrong. 

I guess I am writing this just to make you think. I hope that you are sincere in your actions. That when you ask someone how they are, you take the time to hear it when they say terrible and ask why. That when you tell someone that you will pray for them that you sincerely pray.  I pray that you take the time to love and not take the short cut out through things.