Boy's & Girl's Hell In The Hall Series

Bullying: Far From Harmless

March 3, 2013 Chester FBC, Chester, IL Dr. Mike Fogerson

Introduction

A Each of us have experience with bullying: either as the one wounded or the one doing the wounding.

1 Maybe you’re there right now!

a Someone is stabbing you with words, kicking you with cruel acts, hurting you, taking away your dignity.

b Maybe you can’t sleep @ night dreading to see the people @ school or @ work.

aa They have a name for you-but it’s not your real name.

bb They have a mission to take away your dignity, self-esteem.

cc Spit on you, trip you, knock your books out of your arms, stomp your ankles from behind.

cc Make fun of what you where; You get something for yourself they want to take it, steal it, tear it.

2 Why? For no particular reason.

a Because your small, whistle a certain song, chorus, band, not in sports, you can’t throw/catch a ball.

b Can run fast, far, don’t have the right clothes, . . . you’re different.

3 You tell the people who love you, shelter you, protect you . . . the only instruction/council we’re given is . . .ignore them, stay away from them . . . but no one does anything to stop the verbal, physical, emotional abuse.

a Ignore? Ignoring is acting.

aa Act like the words/actions don’t hurt.

bb You hear the words, feel the blows.

b You can act deaf/impervious to the pain but the stabs & arrows hit you anyway.

B You don’t have any choice but to be there (Gotta go to school, need the job)

1 If you had a choice in the matter you wouldn’t be there (classroom, hall, locker room, bus, cafeteria, the way you walk home)

a You gotta go so you get your books, back pack, lunch . . . gone.

aa “Kids will be kids; life is tough, we all went through it, it’s part of growing up.”

bb It’ll make you stronger; suck it up, kid.

cc Or, you wanna work here you’ll just suck it up & not cause waves.

2 Everyday you get more wounded, stabbed, bleed.

a Wounds fester, infected.

b That infected wound changes you because your spirit has been wounded has been wounded painfully (sometimes permanently.)

c Prov. 18.14, The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear? (KJV)

3 When injury/tough times come, we must be able to draw upon a reservoir of hope, faith, & confidence that God has put inside of us through His Spirit & the love/encouragement of friends.

a Bullies knock holes in our reservoir, drain us of joy, love, confidence.

b Won’t Christ sustain us? Give us the hope/grace we need?

aa I wouldn’t be here today if He didn’t! (That’s the rub.)

bb To prove anything ultimately it takes time/experience.

cc You have to live it out for a while, maybe a long while.

C There is a process that is involved with living out the proof that Christ sustains us.

1 Today, some of us are in the process.

a We have unresolved issues, wounds that need to dressed.

aa Forgiveness that needs to be forgiven; healing received.

bb Some of us adults have been carrying unhealed wounds since childhood.

b In my opinion, much of the violence/school shootings are executed by boys who have a wounded spirit.

aa Bullied, hit, picked on, deodorant sprayed in their face . .

bb Told, “Oh, just ignore it. Kids will be kids, it will make you stronger. . . .”

2 We have an army of young people & adults who have been deeply wounded in their spirit by authority figures/friends.

a We must stop ignoring the problem of bullying & address it.

b Those who have been wounded often become those who wound other.

aa We don’t see it until they snap, take desperate actions, violent measures.

bb We can’t ignore the problem, be in denial that it doesn’t happen in our families, schools, churches, workplaces.

c All of us (wounded or wounded others) need some healing, forgiveness, & a new attitude toward each other.

I The Rules were always there for a reason.

II For 50 years we have taught students that “only the strong survive.”

A We evolved from slime, no absolute objective moral values exist, no ultimate designer/creator, no heaven/hell, no ultimate destiny.

1 We have taught our young people to decide for themselves what is right/wrong. (You determine what’s right)

a If evolution is true . . .

aa there is no God, if there’s no God then no fixed eternal source of truth & morality.

bb No fixed eternal source of truth & morality, then truth & morality are left up to individuals.