Do You Know The Whole Story?

• By candidasullivan
• September 21, 2026
• No Comments

Do you listen to other people’s stories or fill them in with your judgments?

I know that stings a little. It hits me all over because the enemy loves to sneak his thoughts about others into our minds and cause us to judge them. He can help us craft a whole story about someone, even though we don’t know their story. Not all of it, anyway. 

Judgment fills in the blanks. Love asks questions and listens.

When we take the time to listen, we can hear the pain in other people’s lives. We truly have no idea what other people go through. Sometimes, God connects us with someone else. As we hear their stories, we can literally feel their pain. 

Romans 12:15 KJV

¹⁵ Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.

That is Godly. It’s powerful. When we open up and let others see our pain, it bonds us. Lately, so many have shared their stories and struggles with me. These experiences have touched me deep in my soul. 

Hearing the vulnerability of their experiences enables me to pray. When someone weeps in my presence because of deep hurts, I feel it. And I can take it to the Lord. 

I believe God is pleased to see us weep and pray on behalf of someone else when we lay our troubles aside for a moment and genuinely want to help. 

Galatians 6:2 KJV

² Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.

Maybe I don’t need to understand everything about someone’s story to love them through it. I don’t have to fix their pain. I don’t have to have the perfect words. Sometimes I simply need to listen, care, pray, and ask God if there is something He wants me to do.

We are supposed to care. If we can help, we should. Can you imagine how great our community could be if everyone helped someone else? If we all listened to God’s nudges and followed what He puts on our hearts. 

We can tell people all the time that we love them, but sometimes we need to show them. Let them know they are not alone in their troubles. When we help others in their time of need, we show them God. Some might not understand His word, but they can feel His love. God is love. 

Sweet friends, I don’t know anything greater than showing someone else God and His amazing love. Love is a verb. It needs action to make it powerful. 

God displayed this perfectly through Jesus. He didn’t merely tell us that He loved us; He demonstrated His love at the cross.

Romans 5:8 KJV

But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Jesus gave His life for people who could never make themselves worthy of such a gift.

Love went to the cross.

It wasn’t the nails that ultimately explain why Jesus stayed. He willingly laid down His life. Love chose the cross.

Therefore, we need to let love guide us. We need to let God use us. We need to sit with people in their pain, instead of judging or condemning them for it. When we take them to Jesus and ask Him to help them, hope enters their situation. Jesus has what they need. He is the hope they need. 

So, when the enemy tells us that someone is hopeless and their ability to change is impossible, we know a God who specializes in making the impossible possible. 

It’s not our responsibility to decide who deserves God’s love. We didn’t earn it either. We received grace. And remembering how desperately we need grace ourselves makes it easier to extend grace to someone else.

The next time I’m tempted to fill in the missing pieces of someone’s story with my assumptions, I want to stop.

Listen instead of assume.

Pray instead of condemn.

Help instead of criticize.

Love instead of judge.

Because I don’t know their whole story.

But God does.

It’s not our job to decide who is worthy. Our responsibility is to love them to Jesus. Sweet friend, we don’t have to fix everyone we meet. We don’t have to understand everything they’ve done.

We can simply love them toward the One who can do what we cannot.