Honestly, that is why I have stopped watching scary movies. Real life is scary enough! But Hollywood keeps cranking them out so someone must be watching them. Video games keep looking more and more realistic. The blood splatters in the war ones? Too lifelike for my liking....even if it is "zombies". I purposely have to limit my exposure to bad news or I get sucked in and down. With most of the disasters, I have not watched more than a few minutes. I cannot watch someone else be sad without feeling their pain too deeply. I cry just from seeing someone else cry.
I am glad that there are people who can keep it in perspective. I admire emergency responders, nurses, drs, news reporters, etc. Not that they don't show or have feelings. I admire that they can do a job where they deal with this stuff everyday. I pray that they have people surrounding them that can help them decompress at the end of the day.
In a world of ever expanding social networks, I fear that we are losing our ability to see others hurting hearts. Or make ourselves too busy to deal with our own. We Facebook instead of getting together face to face. Let's be honest, a ((((you)))) cyberhug cannot beat the real thing of feeling another person's arms around you. In the effort to get a news story, reporters urge people to share their grief. They tread a fine line between actually helping and just exploiting someone's pain. And we watch it. And we shake our heads in sorrow. And maybe we say a prayer or two or three.
I think one of the many things I find amazing about God is that He doesn't compare our hurts. He doesn't tell us to suck it up because things that are bothering us or hurting our hearts are less than what someone else is going through. He offers to carry those burdens. ALL of them. Big or small. Then the issue becomes us. Are we willing to let them go....and not take them back? God sees the pain - even the pain we hide from others and sometimes ourselves. He wants to heal our hurts so we can see and help others with theirs.
Psalm 62:7-8 (NIV) My salvation and my honor depend on God; he is my mighty rock, my refuge. Trust in him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.
Psalm 73:25-26 (NIV) Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
A Call to Persevere in Faith
Hebrews 10:19-25 (NIV) Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
