What the Church Can Learn from the Life and Death of Robin Williams
Okay, first of all, I will try to make this my last post about Robin Williams. But this is something that has really been on my heart. I believe it is something that all of us can learn from.
First of all, there is this horrible idea that has been presented in blog form that Robin Williams made a selfish choice by choosing to kill himself. And, of course, it all boils down to sin. As I told someone the other day, he didn't have a choice. To him, death seemed the only escape. He was in so much emotional pain and despair, he did not know what else to do.
Why is sin always the Christian answer to all problems? I'm not denying the existence of sin in all of our lives (that will be covered more in a moment). But not everything that goes on in life is because we sin. Sometimes we just go through things. Sometimes, at least according to my beliefs, we experience a spiritual attack - one that is no fault of our own. Sometimes life just gets us down. Sometimes there are physical reasons for emotional pain. There are so many reasons people experience despair that are not related to sin. But I guess it's easier to group everything together under sin, that way we can blame the victim and clear our own consciences for ignoring the hurt that others are experiencing. Makes life a little simpler, doesn't it?
And if everything does boil down to sin in the victim's life, we also can feel just a little better about ourselves for being so holy. After all, when we have a problem, we turn to God. (Obviously the person suffering is not, or that person would not be suffering in the first place. Right? That's how our logical deducting goes). So while we focus on their sin and how they are displeasing God, we an ignore how disappointed God must be in us for not caring (as Jesus put it, not clothing Him when He was naked, feeding Him when He was hungry, and visiting Him when He was in prison). We can just hide away under the guise of holiness and ignore a suffering world. We can raise our hands in worship on Sunday morning in good conscience. We might even slip in a prayer or two for those who do not live such a holy life. After all, a good Christian should always be willing to love his neighbor in prayer.
What we, as Christians, need to realize is that sometimes people need permission to be human. They need permission to be open about their suffering (without worrying that they are going to be deemed sinful - in the most loving way possible, of course). They need to know that if they mess up, they're not going to be looked down upon. They need to know that they are not expected to look shiny and perfect to make a good impression. They need to know that we're not as shiny and perfect as we pretend to be. They need to know it's okay to be broken, because we all are.
When will we realize how far we push others away from from us by our holier-than-thou attitudes?
First of all, there is this horrible idea that has been presented in blog form that Robin Williams made a selfish choice by choosing to kill himself. And, of course, it all boils down to sin. As I told someone the other day, he didn't have a choice. To him, death seemed the only escape. He was in so much emotional pain and despair, he did not know what else to do.
Why is sin always the Christian answer to all problems? I'm not denying the existence of sin in all of our lives (that will be covered more in a moment). But not everything that goes on in life is because we sin. Sometimes we just go through things. Sometimes, at least according to my beliefs, we experience a spiritual attack - one that is no fault of our own. Sometimes life just gets us down. Sometimes there are physical reasons for emotional pain. There are so many reasons people experience despair that are not related to sin. But I guess it's easier to group everything together under sin, that way we can blame the victim and clear our own consciences for ignoring the hurt that others are experiencing. Makes life a little simpler, doesn't it?
And if everything does boil down to sin in the victim's life, we also can feel just a little better about ourselves for being so holy. After all, when we have a problem, we turn to God. (Obviously the person suffering is not, or that person would not be suffering in the first place. Right? That's how our logical deducting goes). So while we focus on their sin and how they are displeasing God, we an ignore how disappointed God must be in us for not caring (as Jesus put it, not clothing Him when He was naked, feeding Him when He was hungry, and visiting Him when He was in prison). We can just hide away under the guise of holiness and ignore a suffering world. We can raise our hands in worship on Sunday morning in good conscience. We might even slip in a prayer or two for those who do not live such a holy life. After all, a good Christian should always be willing to love his neighbor in prayer.
What we, as Christians, need to realize is that sometimes people need permission to be human. They need permission to be open about their suffering (without worrying that they are going to be deemed sinful - in the most loving way possible, of course). They need to know that if they mess up, they're not going to be looked down upon. They need to know that they are not expected to look shiny and perfect to make a good impression. They need to know that we're not as shiny and perfect as we pretend to be. They need to know it's okay to be broken, because we all are.
When will we realize how far we push others away from from us by our holier-than-thou attitudes?
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