Pray for them

Daily Meditation 811–5/20/2024

Recently, I heard a tale about someone in their car in a mask. Someone was gossiping about this person for wearing this mask, but it was fairly clear the person was mentally ill. Their face was sunken in and skeletal — like their skull had been covered in a yellowish wax from cigarette smoke. Their eyes were black and blue. Their arm supposedly had track marks. It appeared they had no teeth. Clumps of hair clung together with grease. No phone in sight, they appeared to be talking loudly to themselves and shaking or rocking. The car, itself, had a missing front bumper and mismatched paint for doors, hood and trunk.

In sum — the mask was not even 5% of their story and this person clearly needed help either for physical abuse, substance abuse, or at the least perhaps shelter.

But the person making jokes regarding the mask should’ve perhaps instead said a prayer.

Now, again, understand: these Daily Meditations are not explicitly Christian in form. I am Christian, so of course my faith trickles into my writing when I say “pray for them,” but I will not foist nor force my faith upon any man, so when I say “pray” interpret it into whichever thing applies to your belief systems.

In short — it is one thing to make jokes at people’s expenses. In fact, I’d go so far as to say joking about others…