One of the few shows that I watch regularly is "Cops". I come from a family of police-radio listeners, and I guess it's in my blood. Anyway, recently I've heard a few of the "subjects" (that's what the cops call the people they're dealing with) say some thought-provoking things. I thought I might write about them. So here's the first one.
One night the cops were talking to a woman working at a truck stop. She wasn't actually working in the truck stop; she was working out in the parking lot. In other words, she was a prostitute looking for truck-driver customers. In the course of the conversation they asked her if she ever accepted payment in the form of drugs. She was quite indignant and said, "I may be a ho [whore], but I ain't a crack ho." In other words, she had her standards! Only a woman with no standards, she implied, would be a crack ho.
This illustrated to me, in a pitiful way, that everyone wants to know that they have standards--that they are not at the bottom of society. Everyone wants to feel that they are worth something. We may be a ho, but we ain't a crack ho. But what a sad thing for this woman to base her worth on. She sells her body, but she only sells it for money, not for drugs. That's her basis for finding self-worth.
I wish I could have reached through the TV set to tell her about a better way to know that she was valued. She is worth so much that the God of the universe died for her. When we really know that, when we really understand how much God loves us, we don't need to find our self-worth in other things, such as in material possessions, or in who we know, or in being better than someone else, or in not being a crack ho. We know that we are worth something because God loves us enough to die for us. That is the most liberating knowledge! It frees us from the need to prove our self-worth in any other way.
May we all realize this: we don't have to prove our self-worth! God gives it to us by loving us. Since the God who created the universe loves us, we are worth something! Thanks be to God for that gift! And I will pray for the woman at the truck stop, that she will know that, too, and find liberation in God's love.
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7 comments:
Thank you Debbie,
I too will pray for this woman.
Unfortunately this is an all too common scenario today. The moral decline of our culture is amazing. In an ironic way, the "ho" seems to put herself in the position of the Pharisee, and the "crack ho" she views as the publican (the greater sinner). That she finds consolation in not being as bad as the "crack ho" should shock us as a culture in seeing just how far we have declined, but instead most of us are simply numb.
Blessings on your ministry.
t seems to me that all of us, even Christians, forget where our worth comes from and keep looking everywhere else but to the Lord. I will pray for her too.
March 2, 2009 5:49 PM
Debbie:
Will you be also be doing a post on the sin that _watching_ "Cops" and similar shows induces in some of us--OK, at least in this viewer? Reality TV is designed to induce PRIDE, a sense of smugness, in the viewer. How many times do we sit in judgement of those on the screen and think, just like the woman in this episode, "I may be a mess, but at least I'm not that much of a mess." How seldom do we have the compassion that we should have on those on the screen.
I hadn't thought about that! This is the only reality show that I watch, and I watch it because 1) I'm fascinated by the sociology of the criminals--by what they say and do, the excuses they come up with, how they live in their homes, etc.--and 2) I always hope to see a gun battle. (I admit it!) (My dad says he always hopes to see a car chase.)
But that is an interesting idea. It's sort of out of the sphere of where I'm going with these posts, though.
It is extremely interesting for me to read this post. Thanks for it. I like such topics and anything that is connected to them. I definitely want to read more on that blog soon.
Thanks, Anonymous! I probably won't have any more "Cops" postings, but there are a few others that I wrote later that you could find on this blog. May God bless you!
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