Infest

“Exposure and its spoils”

Infest

The damage doesn’t always begin within.

Infest stages an apple left to rot, its surface polished, its breakdown slow, quiet, and inevitable.

This is what neglect looks like: not sudden collapse, but slow unraveling. A form still intact, even as the structure gives way.

How long can something appear whole while falling apart just beneath the skin?

  • Infest confronts us with what happens when the heart, literal or figurative, is left exposed. At first glance, the form seems like a simple fruit, but look again: it’s a site of invasion. An organism once vibrant, now overrun.

    The image draws on biological truths: decay, infestation, and autoimmune breakdown. But the metaphor widens, touching homelessness, addiction, chronic illness, and social abandonment. Here, deterioration is not just physical. It’s emotional, systemic, spiritual.

    What does it mean to be consumed by what should be treating you? Or to be left in the open while others turn away?

    There is grief embedded in this stillness. Not just for the subject, but for what could have been. Infest asks us to pause before writing people off. To sit in the uncomfortable tension between "that could never be me" and the haunting realization that maybe it could.

  • Decay is easy to dismiss, especially when it’s not ours.

    When someone’s pain becomes visible, when addiction takes hold, or sickness swells into dependency, it’s tempting to step back. To say, “That’s their problem,” or “They must’ve done something to deserve this.” But Scripture tells a different story.

    God doesn’t turn from the broken. He draws near. He commands His people to do the same, not just in thought, but in action.

    “There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded…”  Deuteronomy 15:11

    “If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity… how can the love of God be in that person?”  1 John 3:17

    Infest reminds us that neglect isn’t passive, it’s a choice. And so is compassion. The person left to wither could be any of us. Addiction, illness, poverty, these aren’t far-off lands. They're shadows that stretch across all walks of life.

    But Christ came for those who were cast aside. And in Him, we’re called to carry that same love, not to fix everything, but to show up, to stay, and to remind others (and ourselves) that they are not forgotten.

    Reflection Question

    Who in your life or community is being left to wither, and what will you do today to bring them closer to Christ’s care?