The screams of desperation are numerous and they can be heard nearly everywhere. They are  voices and fears of pain. The screamer's plea for help, even when from a single person, may seem to be overwhelming to the person who cares.

It may be the scream of an abandoned child, a soldier being tortured by his enemies, a woman fleeing from a serial killer who is determined to destroy her, a lonely person in a crowd who feels alone, a fear-stricken person sensing imminent danger that may be real or imaginary. These screamers have one thing in common: they are crying out for help - for someone to rescue them.

Sometimes other people hear their screams and respond humanely; sometimes others ignore them; sometimes their screams are out of quiet desperation and are too quiet for others to hear. But most of the times their screams are loud and sound as if they are from  hysterical people. Yet, "the loudest scream - a primal scream" - comes from those who cry out for love, those who can scream in rhythmic cadences, often reaching a crescendo pitch that is so high that it goes off the proximity audio odometer.

What are their lyrics? Two words. They scream, "Love me! Love me! Love me!" That's all they ask, just love me. The loudest scream is from the soul-broken person who experiences the most excruciating and severest pain of all screamers. Even sometimes when his screams seem faint to others, they are not; they are always very loud to the screamer whose soul is broken. It is somewhat like unto Jesus crying out in a loud voice while on the cross, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" - which means, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?"

Out of desperation the loudest screamer asks, as if demandingly, "Love me!" He may say, "Love me or I am out of here," and even add, "before I am destructive to others and myself." This may mean that he will commit homicide or  suicide suddenly or by a somewhat prolonged process that involves the use of drugs, overeating or some other life-abusive substances to affect his premature demise.

How tragic it is that "the loudest scream - the primal scream" very often falls on deaf ears, or, if heard, be ignored, perhaps by someone who does not have empathy for hurting people, or who is just too proud to help a broken human being. Yet, those who refuse to help people in desperation may themselves become screamers and it is because they too never learned to love. There comes a time in the life of a person when he needs help and out of desperation he may scream loudly for someone to help him.

The ultimate cure for a screamer is to find someone to love. The ultimate prevention for the person who turns a deaf ear to a screamer and is himself in danger of becoming a screamer is to love himself. Then he will love others even as he loves himself. Love, although mysterious, it is efficacious and reality based. Love connects the temporal and eternity.

"This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out to his troubles." (Psalm 34:6).

(Note: I, Uriah J. Fields, read this Scripture, Psalm 34-1-6, on December 5, 1955, during the first mass meeting of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Some 4000 people gathered at the Holt Street Baptist Church to greet Rosa Parks who was found guilty earlier that day of having violated Alabama's segregation laws when she refused to give her bus seat to a white man. Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered a rousing address and the people voted to continue the one-day old bus boycott).

(From: The Saint Troubadour: Speaking and Singing Truth and Love" by Uriah J. Fields, pp. 261-262).

Copyright 2010 by Uriah J. Fields