Hello ,
Psychologist Madeline Levine has been counseling teenagers for over 25 years, but recently Levine has begun to see a new breed of unhappy teenagers--smart, successful, and privileged kids who feel utterly lost and empty. For Levine, one client in particular typified this kind of unhappy teenager. Late on a Friday afternoon--the last appointment of her week--Levine saw a 15-year-old girl who was "bright, personable, highly pressured by
her adoring, but frequently preoccupied ... parents." The girl was also "very angry."
Levine quickly recognized the girl's "cutter disguise"--a long-sleeve t-shirt pulled halfway over her hand, with an opening torn in the cuff for her thumb. Such t-shirts are used to hide self-mutilating behaviors: cutting with sharp instruments, piercing with safety pins, or burning with matches. When the young girl pulled back her sleeve, Levine was startled to find that the girl had used a razor to carve the following word onto her
forearm--"EMPTY."
Levine commented:
I tried to imagine how intensely unhappy my young patient must have felt to cut her distress into her flesh .... The most common thing I hear in my office from the kids is, "I'm fake." The surface of their family life always looks good .... The lawns are always perfectly manicured, the houses always look beautiful. But when you get to what's going on beneath these kids' T-shirts, there's not much happening inside.
Kids are not the only people who suffer from a huge emotional and spiritual void in their lives. Although they might not self-mutilate as much as teens do, many adults display pretty much the same behavior; their lives look put together and orderly on the outside, but inside they are utterly empty.
Our job as Christians is to introduce people to the One who can help them fill the emptiness that their hearts are longing for. It's accomplished (at least in part), by the way that we treat others in the "daily day" or our lives.
The unassuming smile, the decision to treat others as more than "numbers," the gentle way that we speak with people; all of these things help us to reach out to those who are hurting.
"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." Matthew 5:16
God has answers for these people, but they need to see those answers coming to fruition in the lives of those who claim to follow Him.
Have a great day and God bless!
