by It never ceases to amaze me what has become of people in our world and where their actions can take them. People that are neighbors find that they were wrong to trust the people next door. Mothers drown their children one by one in a bath tub, and priests abuse children in their care.
Now fathers have gotten into it. Katron Walker, 32, abducted his two young sons at knifepoint, and one was found dead. How does a father go from creating a child to killing it? None of these things takes place in a vacuum– you don’t wake up one day and decide to kill or abduct your children.
I think the foundation of the problem lies in how children are viewed. We’ve gone a long way as far as training people that children are a burden, that they are work, that they ruin your life, and that in some cases it’s better to abort them than to “suffer” with them. I do not think you can blame it all on society, however.
Clearly the responsibility lies with the father. But who else in this story are we missing? Those people around him that may have witnessed something between the father and the children? Those people that could have helped him– not by taking away his kids, but for intervening and helping him through the separation or divorce. Clearly this family was not doing well, there were problems– who stepped into that gap to help?
We tend to see one side of a picture, and we tend to not want to get involved because it will cost us something. Anything worth doing usually does. We’ve all seen things that we wonder about in others lives– be it a sin, something that just isn’t right, or something we think someone could do better. It’s easy not to say something– and yet if we see someone stumble or fall or walking down a path that may lead to something awful, it’s our duty to at least be that warning that may bring them back to the right path.
There is no real love apart from involvement. And likely not much love that doesn’t cost us something! Love is messy business at times and chock full of the unexpected. As Christ poured out His life for us we give Him great worship by doing the same through the power He provides by His Spirit in us.
Sometimes people don’t realize that the reason you’re honest with them is because you DO love them. If you see someone being self destructive or doing something that will hurt them in the long run then it IS your obligation to atleast bring it to thier attention. Your job is to do what you can and let God do the rest. I’m struggling with this very thing right now in my life with a “friend”. Sometimes all a person needs to be rescued is for someone to step in, care and speak out.
Definitely– we tend to think it’s the best thing to avoid the confrontation when in reality it does the most harm.