I listened with awe as Suu Kyi addressed the dignitaries that awarded her the Nobel Prize for peace. She was chosen for this honor in 1991 but because of house arrest in Myanmar could not personally accept it until this year.

She tried, in her address, to explain how she felt about the prize and what it meant to her. She said she didn’t really feel anything when she initially heard, over the radio, that she had been chosen. She went on to explain that this was because, in her isolation, she was no longer feeling a part of a bigger world.

This Nobel award drew her into the world of other humans and restored a sense of reality for her. She said that during these 20+ years of house arrest she had lost the links that anchor her to humanity. But in reflection, this global recognition opened up a door in her heart.

As I listened to this amazing woman my heart bled for the pain of my best friend who is in a prison of depression.  All of these loses described by Suu are also being experienced by my friend.

I wish there was a way to open the door of my friend’s heart, to tell the world that she is worthy of recognition and respect and thereby restore the links that would anchor her to humanity.

Jesus is the lynch pin for this to happen for all of us but we need to be able to embrace a sense of self in order to experientially benefit from a relationship with Him and with others. Our prison can be a political house arrest or a chemical depression. Both things fracture the links that anchor us to humanity.