5 am musings: criminal minds

April 25, 2010
Yesterday I watched an episode of “Criminal Minds” with hubby. In this episode, a teenage boy reaches out to a “profiler” for help, because he is struggling with increasingly vivid fantasies related to killing women. In the show, the young man tries to commit suicide, as it seems to him to be his only alternative to giving in to his homicidal thoughts.
And I was left wondering how many people (I am willing to bet it is a lot, maybe most people at one time or another in their lives) feel themselves feeling “driven” to do things that are obviously morally unacceptable. How many people, I wondered, have these “hidden” drives/desire/fantasies, and desperately need help, even want help, and try in various ways to reach out for it. But either are afraid to come right out and ask for help, or if they do gather the courage to seek help, find their fears realized, as people react with criticism, ridicule, disbelief, judgment, patronizing, rebuffing, ignoring… Then the person ends up either going ahead with the negative behavior, or chooses self-destructive ways to avoid/inhibit it, such as turning to substance abuse, alternative negative behaviors, even suicide.
Clearly, to Christians, this kind of situation is one of the reasons that God has given us “one another” in the church. “Confess your faults one to another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed,” we read. Yes, healing – not only from physical ailments, but also emotional and mental – and spiritual. And yet, how often do we make ourselves available to each other, to listen sympathetically without judging; in love. How often do we really pray for each other, truly support each other, stick by each other on an on-going basis? That really requires us to become vulnerable ourselves, and also to be willing to give up “our time.” Oh, and how many of us are willing to become vulnerable enough to reach out to the rest of the “family” when these difficulties enter our own lives?
I wonder how many “fine Christian people” in any typical “loving Christian church” are actually struggling? I wonder how many are unable to access the love of God that is meant to be made available through their “brothers and sisters in Christ?” Hmmm…