Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Reach Out To Hurting People

Why are you downcast, O my soul?

Why so disturbed within me?

Put your hope in God,

For I will yet praise him,

My Savior and my God.

-- Psalm 43:5

There’s an epidemic of suicides, he told me. It seems like it’s one after another after another. Why?

I thought about giving him statistics. I thought about telling him what he already knew. But, instead, I told him the truth as I see it: People are hurting all around us and we don’t see them.

Oh, we talk to them. We know their names. But we see only what we want to see. Or, at least, what they want us to see. Sometimes it seems that those who are hurting the most are the ones best able to tell us exactly what we want to hear.

And usually we don’t want to hear anything negative or bad. We don’t view anger or sarcasm as anything other than meanness or lack of respect. We refuse to see it as a cover for pain. Angry people are hurting people but it’s easier to just walk away.

Or ask inappropriate questions at inappropriate times. In high school I wrote a lot of poetry that was published in the school newspaper. Sad poetry. One teacher -- who was working on her master’s degree in counseling -- asked me why I was so sad. Not a bad question. And certainly the only adult who bothered to ask. But she asked in front of all my classmates and friends. I did what any teenager would do under the circumstances. I laughed it off. But without God’s intervention, I would have been one of those statistics.

I’m not trying to point fingers or assign blame. Ultimately we are all responsible for the decisions we make. And no one can keep someone else from suicide or other self-destructive behavior. We can help but they have to do it themselves.

So how can we help? We can give them a hope called Jesus. We can pray with them. We can reassure them that God sees them, that He hears them. Because isn’t that what we all want? To be seen and heard for who we really are.

Open your hearts and your eyes to those around you. Really look at them and hear what they’re saying and not just what you’d rather see and hear. Take time to actively care about the people in your life. Your words, your attention, your prayers, could have a life-changing impact on someone who is hurting deep inside.