Heart's Sleeve/IMO: Let them come safely

Because I’m a week behind (after my NaNo break) on Fun Friday Posts, I thought I’d wave my magic posting wand and combine Heart’s Sleeve with In My Opinion.



Let them come safely- a joint Heart's Sleeve & IMO post.

I’ve been thinking about the well-intended, the well-intended sort that remains intended without bringing wellness.

I’m sure your e-mail inbox and Facebook walls have encountered them before. The “please pass this along” forwards and status updates. It feels nearly criminal not to do so. I mean what kind of cold-hearted, cruel villain doesn’t want their friends and family to know what jerks their tears or pimples their skin in fear. I’ll admit I’m guilty of passing along a few of these myself.

There’s a good mockery of this type going around right now: “Copy this text and put it in your status if you know someone, or have heard of someone who knows someone. If you don't know anyone, or even if you've just heard of someone who doesn't know anyone, then do still copy this. It's important to spread the message. And the hearts! ♥♥♥♥♥♥ Whatever you do, don't forget the hearts! ♥♥♥♥♥”

Most of the time, I ignore them. Sometimes they are engaging enough for me to want to post one- generally it’s because it’s timely and related to something I’m already thinking about (like losing someone to cancer, or remembering parents who have gone home empty-armed after the birth of a child). But most of the time, they just plain irk me.

The most recent was about child abuse prevention. It’s something I care strongly about, but the idea of changing my picture to a cartoon for a few days somehow implementing great change in the way people respond and act towards those committing abuse? It seemed ridiculous. Nevertheless, I changed my picture- to one of Brain from Inspector Gadget.

If you’re so jaded against these types of posts, why did you change your picture, Lynn?
Well, I’m glad you asked.

For one, I didn’t see the harm in raising awareness, much like sporting a pink ribbon for breast cancer. Two, I carry the Pollyanna hope within me that someone who is experiencing child abuse (an older child, perhaps) would see all the cartoon profile pictures- and might find an ally in one of their friends or family members. But I realize that second part is unrealistic.

But just posting a cartoon picture and asking others to do the same, felt like a mockery to real efforts being made to stop child abuse. So I decided to offer a minor, but very real way, for my Facebook friends to do something practical about child abuse. I posted a link to my friend’s book.

Jeanette Harder, a good friend of mine (she let me live with her, she is a very good friend) just released a book called Let the Children Come. It offers practical ways for congregations and communities (individuals, too) to recognize, respond, and perhaps actually prevent child abuse. Just reading the book will be a better effort in prevention than a status update or a profile picture change. But if you actually put into action some of the suggestions in the book- you will, as the book says, likely never know how many you’ve helped. (It says something like that, but for the life of me I can’t find the exact quote right now. Very sorry, Jeanette!)

I’ve included the link to buy her book. If you’re not the type to keep a book, maybe purchase one for your church library (consider enough for a Sunday School class).

This is one way of stepping where we say we will. If I say I am concerned and wish to prevent child abuse, then I ought to do something about it, right? I think, in the WWJD manner, Jesus might have changed his profile picture (though there were no cartoons or television in his day). But he wouldn’t have stopped there. It wouldn’t have been lip service (or status service). I know there was child abuse then, and I know that the brave, compassionate Jesus wouldn’t have looked away or needed to feel guilty over not-intervening. And though he might have given money to those who helped children, I know that Jesus welcomed, respected, cherished, and deeply loved children. He wouldn’t have waited a few days for the child abuse status surge to pass just to jump on the next bandwagon if well-intended cause-sharers.

It’s not enough to pray, and offer apologies (or worse, condolences). It’s up to us to help the little children get safely to God’s arms.