Speaking With Clarity To The Darkness

As caregivers, we have so many things that hit us all the time, and we can't always nail these things down by ourselves. Who helps you?

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If I get a contract put in front of me, if I got a dispute with something, doesn't matter. I've got a full law firm that can help me navigate through all the sticky wickets that we as caregivers have to deal with. Power of attorney, medical power of attorney, I will.

Every bit of it. As a caregiver, we need someone who advocates for us, and that's why I use Legal Shield. So go to caregiverlegal.com. Look on the left-hand side where it says Legal Shield. Just select it.

It turns purple. It says, pick a plan. It'll give you some options.

If you don't need any of those, don't select them. Check out and be protected starting today. That's caregiverlegal.com. Welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver.

This is Peter Rosenberger. So glad that you are with us. Hopeforthecaregiver.com. I love that song by Keith Green. That subject, do you see, do you see, and it just hits me every time I hear it.

And I want to pivot just a little bit based on that song if you'll indulge me for just a moment as we close the show. I do appreciate John Knox being here with us from the Opt Institute to talk about adoption, and I hope you found that to be a very meaningful interview. I know I did, but I want to address what happened in Highland Park in Chicago, and this is on the heels of Uvalde. This is on the heels of all the other shootings that are going on and the fragmentation of our society as we see more and more of these things.

I wrote an article in Fox News right after Uvalde, and there was a line in there that I just quote from that article. Right now, another grandmother watches a child with drugs and a grandson with severe emotional issues. Another sister's shame prevents her from seeking help from her abusive brother. And as politicians argue about guns, who will intercept these vulnerable family members and help point them to safety?

In every case like this, it seems that the drama going on within that family is known not only to friends, neighbors, and other family members, but oftentimes, and a lot of, most of the times, it seems like two authorities. And people don't know what to do. People don't know how to act with it. And I get it, the rush towards having the argument over the Second Amendment and guns and the type of guns and all that kind of stuff.

And I get that. And that's what politicians do. I don't think you can regulate people who want to hurt other people. This guy that drove a SUV into the parade in the parade in Wisconsin, you know, he didn't use an assault rifle. There are ways to inflict damage. Yes, I understand the concept of bullets and high capacity magazines and all that kind of stuff. As I watch this, I can't help but think how important it is for us to know why these things are happening and not just stop it, how they're happening.

And as the gun debate rages on, I desire, I wish that they would put as much of that same energy into the why. Why is this happening? What's changed? What's happened? There was a time in this country where kids would take guns to school, leave them in their truck, long rifles and so forth. This was not unheard of. What's happened? And you look at the same demographic, the 16 to 21 year old males, for the most part, hyper aggressive with these atrocious, violent, evil things that they're doing.

How did they get to this point? Do video games play a part in this? Does the violence and the degradation of life that is promulgated in our culture play a part in this? There's the recent study by George Barnum.

We're going to have him on. He just did the study that we talked about in the last couple of blocks for the Opt Institute where we're going to have him on talking about the decline in faith in this country. One of the alarming statistics in his new report shows the lower number of pastors who have a biblical worldview. Does that play a part in this? Well, of course all these things do. You isolate a bunch of young males who are having emotional troubles and poor family dynamics. And with the COVID and everything else locked down, we're isolating these guys, putting them on computers all day long to play video games and other things. And then wonder why they go feral. And we wring our hands and think, well, let's just take away the guns. Well, if they're feral, they're going to go feral with other things besides guns and have that conversation. God bless them.

That's fine. I'm not here to go into the weeds on that issue. I just know that there are so many family members out there because I've talked to them who are struggling with messed up kids and they don't know what to do. They don't know how to respond. They don't know how to protect themselves or the child.

They don't know what help looks like. And I ask you, do you think that we can just leave this to the world to figure this out? Are you comfortable with that? Are we going to just say, well, the people in Washington and our state legislatures and so forth, they'll figure it out. Or do we have a responsibility as the church to be elbows deep into this misery, not just cleaning up the aftermath of it, not just ministering to the victims and their families, but to step into it before this ever happens.

And if so, what does that look like? And I go back to a woman who called this program, whose brother was very abusive to her and her mother with dementia. And he was a drug addict and he had a criminal record. He had a firearm and he wasn't supposed to have one. And I asked, why didn't she call the cops? I said, go ahead and call the cops. She said, well, I can't. That's when she broke down. She wasn't crying about anything else, but that's when she broke down. And she said, I can't.

I said, well, why not? And she said, because I used to be a lesbian before I became a Christian and he's threatened to tell everybody. Shame and guilt were keeping her locked in a place of fear. She was afraid to make the call because of shame and guilt. The scriptures speak to shame and guilt. Well, of course it does. That's why he went to the cross.

He bore all this, all this brokenness. And if we can speak with clarity into people's heartaches and give them the moment's pause so they can catch their breath and make better decisions, not based on shame and guilt, but make the hard decisions. It's based on conviction and knowing that they're doing the best thing possible, which is to deal with this issue before it becomes a tragic event. This, I believe is our opportunity as believers to step into this with great leadership, great authority based on the word of God and do it neighbor to neighbor, friend to friend, family to family, radio show to radio show, and keep saying the same message so that people know that it's okay for them to be safe. It's okay for them to make the call. It's okay to not be beat up and abused by a family member. And if you've got a kid that is really messed up and you don't know what to do, it's okay to raise your hand and say, I got a kid that's messed up and I don't know what to do and I'm afraid. There are people that can help with this. Start with your pastor.

If your pastor blows you off, go to get a different pastor and then go get a different church by the way too, because this is the role of pastor is to walk with families through this and to let them borrow some of their courage to make the hard decisions. There's a epidemic of mental health issues in this country. It's not going to be solved with anything that Congress does. So the vitriol that's spewing forth from the halls of power are not going to make our neighbors safe or us safe. And I go back to that wonderful song by Steve Green. I'll go over here to the caregiver keyboard. People need the Lord. And we know this, we say this, we sing this.

At the end of Broken Dreams, he's the open door. Can we effectively communicate this? Not just locking in on this individual whose behavior may be aberrant. Of course it is. But there's a family around them that are clueless, that are struggling, that know something is amiss.

We're losing kids right and left of this. Are we providing leadership or are we just clucking our tongues and saying, well, I thank the Lord that I'm not like that guy. Everything in scripture communicates to me that we're all that guy.

And the ground is completely level at the foot of the cross. None are righteous, no, not one. And so can we grab a hold of that in our own life and plead with those around us to seek help and to help point them safely to it clearly so that they really understand what help looks like. They may not take you up on it.

They may dismiss you or blow you off, but at least you've given them a fighting chance. We're not responsible for results, but we are responsible to speak into other people's heartaches because that's what our Savior did for us. This program is designed to help people stay strong and healthy while caring for someone who is not. This program is designed for the family caregiver to be able to catch their breath and take a moment's pause so that they can make healthier decisions in the midst of great unsettledness.

What's happening across our country with these shootings and everything else is no different. We have a responsibility. We have an opportunity. We have the privilege of speaking that same gospel that sustains us into the lives of others who are in desperate need of hearing this same gospel. Thank you for your indulgence on this. This is Peter Rosenberger. This is Hope for the Caregiver. Hopeforthecaregiver.com. We'll see you next time.