One Fourth of Young People - Made Sick By . . . - 10/30/2009

Today's Mental Image:

Unless You Become As One Of These

When a boy or girl grows up in a home characterized by violence, physical abuse, sexual abuse, neglect, or any unhealthy behavior or attitude, he or she typically feels ashamed, humiliated, and insecure. I know firsthand that these feelings are not easily erased in adulthood. [Shirley Dobson]

 I Have Not Come For The Healthy But For TheSick         There is a plague in the church. The majority of the youth and young adults have experienced violence, physical abuse, sexual abuse, neglect, unhealthy behavior and/or unhealthy attitudes, primarily at home.  I'm talking about both those who still attend and those who seldom or no longer come.  I'm talking those with no church background and those with a church background.  They come feeling ashamed, humiliated, and insecure.  It's a part of their character, who they are now.  They are the sin-sick, made sick by the sins committed against them.

          The good news is that Jesus came just for them - the sin-sick.  He said to the first members of His Church:  "Heal the sick.  Father the fatherless, feed the hungry and poor in spirit.  Free the captive.  Secure the insecure by loving one another even as I have loved you.  Make up, in My church, the love deficit that keeps the sin-sick bound in shame, feeling humilated, and fearful in insecurity."

          The other good news is that we, the church, can do just that.  But believe me, for most of us, it will not mean doing the same as we have always done.  It will not mean worshipping at the shrine of our tradition and history.  It will mean we too, along with the sin-sick, begin to thrive in the awesomeness of experiencing the wholeness of being a part of the Body of Christ!  Let the healing, let the loving, begin!!

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