What comes to your mind when you think about the concept of vulnerability? Have your feelings about vulnerability changed over the last year and a half? Life during a pandemic seems to have revealed how vulnerable we actually are. What about connection? Rotating lockdowns and restrictions have certainly shown us how fragile our connection to other people can be. And if you look at the world around you, it’s easy to see how much respect and honor for others seems to be absent in society today.
When people are vulnerable, they are exposed to physical, emotional, or mental harm. Recently, we’ve all been forced to become constantly aware of our own vulnerability. We prefer to believe that we have more control of our own lives and our own choices. We often don’t like to think about the struggles of other people because it can remind us of our own potential vulnerability. Yet millions of people in the world live their whole lives facing constant exposure to harm and a total lack of control over their own future.
Connection and honor are not just abstract concepts to debate or discuss. They are a vital part of our emotional and spiritual core. We were created to have a deep need for connection. Connection with God fills us with love and keeps us rooted in truth. Human connection, just like weaving threads together makes a stronger fabric, makes people stronger. These relationships depend on honor. When we honor something, we value, cherish and esteem it. Without honor, our relationships are empty and selfish.
Our ability to connect with one another has also been put under enormous stress in the last fifteen months. Public health restrictions, misunderstanding, and fear have all contributed to the greatest unraveling of face-to-face human connection in my lifetime. Similarly, honor, which is always challenging for us as sinful human beings, is eroding in our society rapidly. We are faced with growing examples of entire demographics or racial groups being mistreated and even hated. Just think for a moment about the shocking living conditions exposed in long-term care homes during the pandemic.
These challenges that we are currently facing are not new to people in developing countries. The elderly in Ukraine, for example, are one of the most vulnerable populations in the world. They understand all too well feeling exposed to physical or emotional harm. Many seniors live alone, are disconnected from others, and have no medical or personal support of any kind. They’ve been left behind by family, and cannot be helped by government agencies who pay out poverty-level pensions. They don’t feel connected, they feel abandoned. They don’t feel honored or esteemed, they feel worthless!
We have to show these precious people that they are neither abandoned or worthless! We must meet their physical needs because that makes them less vulnerable. But, our focus will be on personal home visits because this generation should be valued and cherished. As we connect with them personally, we will fill their God-given need for relationship and can lead them to their loving, Heavenly Father.
You are an absolutely vital part of this connection building. Together we can shield the vulnerable and restore a small measure of respect and honor to this forgotten generation. Your gift of $30 will ensure that one lost and lonely senior receives that vital love and connection as well as practical help.
