As Christians, we talk a lot about living in a hurting world. A hurting world that we feel the call to show Jesus’ love, grace, mercy and compassion to. Does the world realize that it’s hurting? I think that, in many cases, lifestyles and behavior patterns have become so firmly entrenched over generations that the world doesn’t really understand how much it is hurting. In some cases, that moral compass seems to have been lost altogether if not at least tilted badly off balance. Of course, that isn't always the case. Many people know how far off center they are but a sense of helplessness pervades all they do. Regardless of whether they know they're hurting or not, as our call as Christians, that shouldn’t make any difference.

Oftentimes when we talk about a “hurting world” we are referring to folks caught up in self-destructive behavior. They may realize their predicament or they may not. They may be living out generations-long patterns but, still, at the root of all of that many times is that they feel unloved and, quite often, unlovable. They see no point in changing their patterns because that is just how life is going to be for them – there is no offer of anything better. Addictive behavior, if involved, becomes all-consuming – heavy chains they must drag around - always tethered a short distance from their source of relief from life’s pain.

I am not sure how this all inter-connects but there have been three very interesting and horribly tragic local new cases recently. All seem to show, in one way or another, a very hurting world operating right here alongside us.

A woman in Dayton supposedly stuffed her young child in a microwave. The result is one of God’s children no longer here on earth to fulfill his purpose. The ruined life of a young mother who for some unknown reason did the unthinkable. The severing, undoubtedly, of family ties and relationships.

Also supposedly, the step-father of a five-year-old girl, at the request of the girl’s mother, violated and physically injured the girl, all in a foolish attempt to pin the label of sexual abuse on the girl’s natural father. A young girl forever emotionally and physically traumatized and scarred, broken family relationships, two adults who for some reason were willing to go to horribly extreme measures out of what they, tragically misguided, must have thought was love for this little girl. Surely, in their minds, they must have been seeing her life with her biological father as being even worse than with them. They both now face possible life imprisonment. The little girl faces a life of who knows what ahead of her.

The third case is a little different but pretty interesting. We are holding two Dayton residents in our county jail, accused of collecting signatures this summer in our local county on a petition to get a “Smoke Less” issue on the November ballot. The problem is that, somehow, they had signatures of people who are no longer alive, as well as falsified signatures of people living. In court this week, they refused legal representation. The judge entered a not-guilty plea on their behalf. I don’t have a clue whether these individuals were just pawns or if they thought they had stumbled onto a way of more quickly filling up the petition pages they’d been given. But poor choices ensued someplace and messed-up lives and broken relationships are the result.

I have more stories …

Our pastor, who has worked the “inner city” of our town for many years now, was talking recently about how even his eyes were re-opened recently to racial and social divisions within our little city.

A good friend of mine facing molestation charges in Dallas, Texas goes on trial this week. I firmly believe he’s innocent but it all so much brings to my mind how, as soon as anyone is even remotely labeled with a heinous crime such as as hurting a child, and even after they serve their jail sentence, we want to lock them away in the worst part of town – force them to deal with their demons alone and far, far away from us. Assuming he is found innocent this week, how will society treat him from here on out?

Yes, we are in a hurting world. Is it hurting worse than at other times in history? I don’t know but hurting horribly it is. Yet we are such a polarized nation in our viewpoints, our lifestyles, and our geographic neighborhoods. I support charities and do things to supposedly help what refer to as the “least of these” (even though that is a label that I myself should be wearing as I humbly accept God's grace and forgiveness) and certainly those charities do good work and they show Jesus’ love to folks. But, the burning question remains, are we really doing all we can to reach those who feel unloved and unlovable? Those who we like to keep locked away to deal with their issues … as long as they don’t bother us. We like to show love in church and through third party charities. We fear getting our feet dirty. Jesus taught and showed love on the dirty, hot, dusty streets. I know that there are many wonderful people out there doing His work in the streets. I, for one, am not doing my part.