They Are Alone

Lately I've been watching music video clips. Two of them were Numb by Linkin Park and Evanescence's Everybody's Fool. I don't want to make this a media studies essay, but I think there's a similarity between the two. The story of the Numb video revolves around a very artistic (and actually pretty) girl who can't seem to fit into anyone around her. She gets into trouble with her college teacher for doodling in class, her mom nags at her incessantly and other girls at school move away whenever she's around. Everybody's Fool tells an almost opposite story about a different girl. The girl, played by Amy Lee, is an outwardly successful celebrity that appears in commercials and on magazine covers. But while playing the glamorous star, her inside is hurting, feeling betrayed by the very image she is portraying to the world.

In both videos, both girls end up hurting themselves as a result of their frustration; the Numb girl has self-inflicted scars along her arms, and Amy Lee's character smashes the mirror that reflects her image in self-rage, and cuts her hand in the process. The first girl is not liked by anyone, and the second has a lot of admirers. Yet they both feel alone.

Hurt, pain, rejection and self-deceit can become a cancer that destroys us from the inside out. I feel this even now, and I cry for release. But while I know that there is Someone that I can cry my heart and eyes out to, I know there is a multitude of people, young and old, men and women, who are frustrated and angry, at themselves and others. And there seems to be no one that cares. God is there for them, of course, but they simply don't know this. And that's why they feel so alone in their pain.

At the end of the Numb video, the girl runs into the church building where Linkin Park can be seen performing during the duration of the video. But there is no one there; she is still alone. What about the Church as the body of Christ? When someone like her walks into our midst, will she find someone that embodies the healing love of the Father? Or will she still be alone?