How are you?

A common enough phrase is it not. In fact if I were a betting man, i would suspect that 93.827 of all conversations begin with some form of this inquiry. These oft understated words are actually farore significant perhaps than we realize.
It is in the moments immeaditely following these words that define not only the rest of the conversation but also reveals several other things as well.
For instance during those few seconds we quickly evaluate several things, such as:

How honest do I feel like being?

Do I trust them?

Do I even like them?

Do they still smell funny?

Do they really want to know?

How we respond defines our transparency for the rest of the conversation. Many of us deflect (guilty) we respond sometimes curtly and almost always briely with a word or two.

I'm fine. Or everythings great.

I know I do this all the time. Sometimes we even need to do it, certain situations dictate us to limit our transparency. Many times however I do it to keep people away. God on his never leaving, never forsaking kind if way reminds me, showse that transparency is critical to my faith. The Holy Spirit often needs to push me reminding my life is God's andy grasp on it has been forefit since the cross.

Galatians 6.2 We are exhorted to help bear each others burdens.

In our culture autonomy(a fancy way of saying our desire to do things our own way and not to be confused with anatomy) is incredibly important. We value independance, it is seen as being strong, While asking for help is a sign of weakness.

This is not the way Jesus had planned for us. It's a tactic of the enemy, to separate us from the body of Christ, convincing us we would fare better on our own, that no one would understand, or that some how the loads we carry are toxic and we had better keep it inside less we infect others as well.

God continues to challenge me in this way and i find it quite scary. But it is something I need to do and fortunately God always finishes what he starts, I'm glad one of us does.