Meth Mom...

I recently read an article about a mom who was found passed out in her car which contained Meth Amphetamine- she had a naked baby sitting in a carseat. It must have been a disturbing sight for whoever found them there by the road. Understandably, the mother was arrested and heavily sentenced for possession of an illegal substance and child abuse. She is now making a plea for leniency and help so that she can return home to be with her three children.
As I scrolled down through the reader comments below the article, I was disturbed by the cold remarks that were made. "Serves her right", "Lock her up and throw away the key" "Her poor children are better off without her", "Let her rot in Hell for what she did", "I can't believe she did this in our community", etc. Will nobody hear the cries for help from this woman? The two people who did post sympathetic comments were loudly booed by the angry and self-righteous posts of the others. (Guess none of them have ever made a mistake before and are now entitled to come down hard on someone else?)

The mother messed up bigtime- YES. Should she be punished? YES- she needs to take responsibility for her actions. But she too is a life and God loves her. She needs help not hatred. If the community is sooooo concerned for her poor children, then they would know the best thing to do is help their mother get cleaned up as soon as possible so she can be with them. It CAN be done. She is their birth mother and nobody else will ever take her place in their lives.

I too am outraged when children are abused or neglected- it's heartbreaking! However, was the response from this woman's community appropriate? They are very quick to deal out shame on her. However, she did not just wake up one morning and say, "Hey, just for kicks I think I'll be a druggie and abuse my kids." It was a long, slippery slope that happened over time. Where was the community then?? Why do we not focus more on prevention and less on punishment after the fact?

Having lived among some of the poorest people in America and knowing them as I do, I see things a little differently than the average or privileged American. Many people have been incredibly sheltered and as a result, often turn a blind eye and deaf ear to those who struggle just to get by. People turn to a life of drugs and drink when they have tried to succeed and had the door slammed on them one too many times. Some have been sorely abused and rejected all or most of their lives. As a teen, I watched one of our neighbors- a single mother- try hard to get work, but nobody would hire her because she had been in jail nearly a decade before. Her children were taken away. I remember her sobs as she watched the CPS van drive away with her kids. We are too often a very uncaring, unforgiving people- so caught up in our own agendas that we fail to see or choose to overlook the need around us.

What kind of community is so blind that they cannot see the signs of a family struggling financially, spiritually or emotionally? To those who are so quick to point the finger of blame at the ones who fall- where were you BEFORE they fell? Where was your church?? There are probably several congregations in their city. Why didn't they reach out to help this woman before she ended up passed out on the side of the road???? Too often, by our neglect, we create desperate people, then punish them. Will we excuse ourselves saying, "Am I my brother's keeper"? It comforts me to know that God sees the bigger picture. The meth mom is an adult who needs to be accountable for what she did. However, the greater burden of neglect is laid upon the community for not acting on the part of this family. Though I am making NO excuses for her behavior, I feel for this woman and her children. We are so often graceless. Mercy is difficult to offer- until we ourselves have truly received it.

If Jesus Christ were born today, He would likely be born to a homeless young woman in the back ally of a ghetto. Nobody would recognize Him now either. We tend to prefer flashy, happy, eloquent, influential people in suits. I believe God allowed His own Son to be born into poverty so that He could understand the hurts of the less fortunate. If you haven't, then just for a week, try to put yourself in someone else's shoes. There is charity in this country, but that is not a cure-all. You see every form of charity has requirements that must be met before you qualify. Contrast that with the fact that God offers grace and mercy- simply because we're breathing. At times my family was quite poor, but often we did not get any assistence. We fell in the crack of earning too little to get by very well, but making just a little too much to qualify for help. People would tell my mother to quit her job and live off the government, but she was too proud for that and with all her heart wanted to work to feed us. Can you blame her? So we got by as best we could.

There have been some hard times in my life- I can easily understand how people get off on the wrong track when they are hurting. Heaven help them- it's very likely nobody else will.