WEEKLY POWER SURGE…

with John Young

Build you week on a solid foundation, a Bible verse, an inspirational thought and a positive prayer.

I read recently about an incident involving an eight-four-year-old lady in Stockholm, Sweden, who one winter sat on her balcony for two months before a neighbour discovered she was dead. The lady was found sitting in a chair, dressed in a coat and hat, her forehead leaning against the railing.  The neighbour realised there was something wrong when she saw the woman sitting on her balcony around the clock, despite freezing temperatures. “I accuse myself for not having seen her earlier,” she said later, “I hope this dreadful incident motivates us to be more diligent in keeping in touch with our old neighbours.”

Isolationism is a human tragedy of the modern world. For fear of poking our nose into someone else’s business or getting involved in something that could backfire on us, we have trained ourselves not to stop, look and listen. The busyness of life restricts our desire to care.

In a fast-paced world where only the fit survive, it is very easy to feel de-humanised. Our technological age has made us more aware of our insignificance. Our suspicion that we are not loved for who we are, is confirmed daily by the impersonal nature of 21st century living. We make a phone call and “voice mail” takes over. If those we call are not at home we talk to an answering machine. If we need money at any time day or night we go to the “hole-in-the-wall.” Machines write for us, text for us, answer phones for us, get money for us, and shop for us 24 hours a day, book flights and rent cars for us. They can even sign our letters.

The results are scary. A subtle erosion of individuality followed by a no-touch, don’t-bother-me I’m-too-busy-coldness, leading to a total absence of face to face interaction, resulting in the loss of human contact and dignity. This is a particular problem for the elderly. Our modern age calls it progress. What’s progressive about becoming completely untouchable?

Machines can’t hug you when you are grieving, or comfort you when you lie ill in a hospital bed fearful of the future. Machines don’t care when you desperately need someone to talk to, and they do not reassure when you need hope and strength to go on. Machines will never replace the essential presence of another human being.

Jesus Christ was the ultimate example in treating people as individuals with dignity. He made time for the children, the leper, the disciples, the prostitute, the hungry, and the thief on the cross. He came to save people, human beings with names, personalities, fingerprints and faces. He knew the eternal value of each unique individual. He taught us the real meaning of “love thy neighbour.” (Read the parable of the Good Samaritan, Luke 10:30-37) Then follow the command of Christ, “Go and do likewise.”

Upholding human dignity is worth the effort every time.

There is no substitute for the person touch.