I fell asleep with the television on, and woke in the night to the voice of Jeremy Kyle [a British talk show host/agony uncle]. In my drowsy state, I realised he was talking to a not "uncommon" guest. A young single mum in a relationship with a cheating, alcoholic irresponsible father. As the story unfolded, I could tell he was trying to get the young lady to see the picture as it really was. She narrated that her partner/baby father had;
1] Cheated on her before she got pregnant, with pics of a naked female on his laptop to prove it.
1] Cheated on her before she got pregnant, with pics of a naked female on his laptop to prove it.
2] Was an alcoholic, drinking up to 25 pints of beer at one sitting.
3] Cheated on her while she was pregnant.
4] Was too drunk to even attend the birth.
3] Cheated on her while she was pregnant.
4] Was too drunk to even attend the birth.
5] Had only given her money once since the babies birth.
6] Was still drinking after the birth and on one occasion had been drunk during a visit with the baby.
This sounded disastrous by all accounts, but what was incredible, was the difficulty the host Jeremy had, in making her see that this was an untenable situation. She claimed to have split up with her partner 3 months earlier, but had slept with him as recently as the previous 3 weeks. She had called the show to get help for him and enable him be a good father. But as Jeremy pointed out, she had enough warning before she even got pregnant, with the cheating and drinking. His subsequent failure to control his drinking after the birth, did not bode well either. She claimed that he had stopped drinking for a while, [without any help or support] but had gone back to his old ways.
It seemed futile trying to explain that his behaviour was quite detrimental to her child, and as a responsible parent, she should set the ground rules and insist her partner seeks help for his alcoholism and demonstrated commitment to change, before she allowed him have care and access to their child. The young man in question came onto the show and immediately denied that he drank that much, or that he had contributed only once to the babies upkeep. He claimed to have lost his job soon after the birth, surprise, surprise !
6] Was still drinking after the birth and on one occasion had been drunk during a visit with the baby.
This sounded disastrous by all accounts, but what was incredible, was the difficulty the host Jeremy had, in making her see that this was an untenable situation. She claimed to have split up with her partner 3 months earlier, but had slept with him as recently as the previous 3 weeks. She had called the show to get help for him and enable him be a good father. But as Jeremy pointed out, she had enough warning before she even got pregnant, with the cheating and drinking. His subsequent failure to control his drinking after the birth, did not bode well either. She claimed that he had stopped drinking for a while, [without any help or support] but had gone back to his old ways.
It seemed futile trying to explain that his behaviour was quite detrimental to her child, and as a responsible parent, she should set the ground rules and insist her partner seeks help for his alcoholism and demonstrated commitment to change, before she allowed him have care and access to their child. The young man in question came onto the show and immediately denied that he drank that much, or that he had contributed only once to the babies upkeep. He claimed to have lost his job soon after the birth, surprise, surprise !
At this point, I could no longer watch and switched off the telly. As someone who has watched a fair few "self-help shows", this was a familiar theme, but this time I didn't turn away in disgust, but in dismay and exasperation about the state of affairs. It behoves belief that anyone would choose to live like this, why would they value themselves so little as to put up with this kind of behaviour. How did they get into such a state and what was the solution, I asked God. As I pondered, it came to me, that these situations had arisen because the devil had been let loose in the world [Rev 12:12 ] and the people did not know God [Jer 9:3 ]
I know it makes good TV to see people wash their dirty linen, [real and contrived] on the airwaves, and maybe hosts like Jeremy Kyle are really altruistic and desire to help [while getting the megabucks]. But it just doesn't seem like a few hours of counselling after the show are going to solve such deep-rooted problems. As I began telling God this wasn't my problem and I didn't have the solution, He pointed out to me that these are still His beloved children and He wants to help them. He told me I didn't have to find the solution, He had; the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ was the solution [1st John 5:11-12]
We can try all kinds of intervention, counselling, social engineering etc, but these won't work until the people know Christ. I thought about trying to reach out to all the disenfranchised and downtrodden people that exist in our world today, and the magnitude of our task seemed overwhelming. It really brought home the scripture, "the harvest is plentiful but the labourers are few" [Mt 9:37 ]. So I pray for more labourers, and for those of us who do know God, to become more effective in reaching out to the lost sheep. For us to actually desire to help the "lost", rather than sit in self-righteous judgement of them [which I've been guilty of in the past too].
The words of a Diana Ross song inspire me, "reach out and touch somebodies hand, make this world a better place if you can". This is our great commission, to show love and care to everyone we come in contact with [Luke 10:27, 1st Jn 3:17-18]. If the secular world can respond and empathise with the sentiments expressed in that song, [It was nos 1 in the charts for a long time] then we as Christians should be compelled to act in love to one another, and bring in addition the redeeming knowledge of Jesus Christ.
As the title of this piece says, "my people perish for lack of knowledge" [Pr 29:18]. Let us that have the "knowledge" pray for the increased ability and desire to share it with others, so that none may be lost. Its an onerous task I know, but if all of us who profess to be Christians, reached out to help someone in need, then this world would indeed be a better place.
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