Humiliated
The best lessons are probably the hardest ones. If I rated our trip on a scale of 1-10, I’d give it an eleven. However, I did have one experience that wasn’t even on the scale. If I rated that ten minutes on a scale of 1-10, I’d give it a minus eleven or maybe even a minus eleven-hundred.
As our friends and we headed toward airport security in Nashville, we discussed the fact that the girls had gotten the privilege of skipping the full security experience but the guys had not. We decided to stick together anyway and all go through security together.
The experience was uneventful until I got to the other side of the scanning machine and was informed that the scan revealed that I would have to be body searched — not with the wand, mind you — the hands-on, by a lady officer, (fully-clothed, praise God) body search. I will spare you the details. Trust me. It was awful. Standing inside that box was a completely humiliating experience. I may never view blue plastic gloves the same way again.
I had never been afraid of security before because I wasn’t hiding anything; it had simply been an inconvenience for which I was grateful. After all, we all want the bad guys stopped. We must have gone through security a dozen more times before we got home on Sunday and I never had another problem. However, I did relive my Nashville airport experience in my imagination more than once. At least one of those times, I tensed up when I saw the workers and machines and felt like crying. I’m thankful now for the opportunity to ponder more deeply the meaning of all this.
- I don’t ever want to humiliate anybody.
- Because a few want to hurt the many, millions are inconvenienced — and a few are humiliated.
- Some people go through humiliation often because of the color of their skin or the shape of their features. How very, very sad.
- Many children go through humiliation day after day because they learn in an atypical way. I’m thankful that you provide a safe environment for your children so they don’t have to experience that.
Jesus never deserved to be humiliated for anything He ever did, but He was humiliated for you and for me.
For you have been called for this purpose,
since Christ also suffered for you,
leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps,
who committed no sin,
nor was any deceit found in His mouth;
and while being reviled, He did not revile in return;
while suffering, He uttered no threats,
but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously;
and He Himself bore our sins
in His body on the cross,
so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness;
for by His wounds you were healed.
1 Peter 2:21-24