Broken

I had a terminal friend that had a seizure in a convenient store. When she woke up, there were people gathered around her with their cameras out filming her. That evening her husband spent most of the night searching the internet to make sure no one posted the videos. Every time I think of this story, I tear up thinking about the love of a spouse doing their best to restore the dignity of their dearest. In this digital age, I often wonder if people understand the loss of self-worth because of videos that memorialize the worse moments of someone’s life. There are websites set up just for others to down load clips of another human being so they can be mocked or dehumanized for a laugh.

There are many a time that one of my first-step ladies is so full of shame of what they have done that they cannot even make eye contact. It is hard to describe how indignity can cause a person’s shoulders to roll forward in the attempt to create one’s self to become unnoticeable. Through time though, as they experience the love of God, you see how God begins to restore their lost worth. I absolutely love that day when I can see the beautiful eyes of one that a few weeks earlier was so lost and broken. It is a privilege that I love about my work that I get to see God’s handiwork of restoration. 

The past few weeks, the world watched a brother of Christ have a manic moment while voyeurs stood and watched. It both saddens me and angers me that the flaws of others can be a sense of amusement. With all these hollow words of destroying hate, it sickens me as I heard all those clicking cameras busily working to profit off of someone’s undeniable breakdown. Mental illness and depression are not a joke, and a society that thinks otherwise is wholly lost. Take a hard look at Genesis 9:20-23, where God documents the story of Noah’s nakedness. Maybe you had read the story before and did not see the importance. I want you to think of a moment when you got yourself into a predicament. Would you want those around you to preserve your dignity or exploit it? Please spare me the thought they got themselves into the mess. As the redeemed of Christ, I praise God He never had that thought about me. We cannot remove hate from this world, but we can preserve another’s self-worth by not participating in a laugh at someone else’s expense. Please pray for those that have a mental illness, genetic disorders, learning disabilities, and emotional ebbs and flows. It is not a joke. Ask God to encourage those that have to watch their loved one’s suffering. By all means, please ask God how you can help in these situations. If you don’t know how to make a difference when it comes to the topic of hate, well start here. Reject all the feeds that exploit people and stop laughing at someone when they are in distress. Then immediately ask God what to do to render help in the situation because someone’s dignity is at stake. It is simple but effective.