Hello, my friends. I’m taking a detour from what I planned to write. My mind won’t focus until I get this out. Most days, I’m positive. Today, not so much. The horrible headlines don’t end. I stay somewhat detached to protect my mind and spirit. But this one demands my attention, as toddlers often do, and shakes me awake.
Forgive me, there’s no delicate way to mention baby body parts found in the Garfield Park lagoon. Those words don’t even belong in the same sentence. It’s repulsive and evil but I can’t shrug it off because this child, whose gender is unknown, needs to be noticed.
What brings me to the keyboard today is this baby’s utter invisibility. How can a child be on this earth for two to four years and no one reports him missing?
Can a person be so insignificant that not even neighbors notice he’s gone? Have they decided it’s none of their business? Are lives that disposable?
God help us.
I’m guilty. I turn away from far less messiness and tuck myself into my comfortable, suburban bubble. After all, seeing requires tears, heartache, and possible despair.
As Christ followers, we’re comforted in our own pain and often prefer to stay that way. But God calls us to a paradox, to an absurd opening up to another’s struggle. Not fun. But, we’re called to it by the One who did it. We set self and our warm fuzzies aside and invite pain in.
So I cry, yell, and pray. Now that I’m done believing my feelings and their lies—People are hopeless. Nothing will change. Retreat is your best option.—I’m just mad.
Satan is a liar and a thief. What did he whisper to this baby’s killer? What does his foul breath hiss into the ears of those who know something?
What fears keep us from doing the right thing?
Truth is, despite the headlines and our fears, our soul’s enemy is already defeated.
By surrendering to the cross, Jesus chose the Father’s will. He conquered sin, our soul’s enemy. By sacrificing feel-good comfort, He invited pain in. All the world’s sin and its crushing heartache.
Aren’t you glad we don’t have to carry it all?
Christ’s Holy Spirit empowers us to overcome fear and model His compassion. While many choose to serve evil, most are simply lost—harassed and helpless. We are called to invite their pain in.
Father, show us the invisible, the forgotten, the marginalized. Don’t’ let us walk past them in our homes and our churches. Stir our hearts when we drive past them in our neighborhoods, our hospitals, and our nursing homes. Patient Father, give us eyes to see the helpless, compassion for the harassed, and courage to feel their pain. May we be faithful to carry our small part as we move forward on this lifelong journey to become more like Jesus.
“When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.’ ” Matthew 9:36-38
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