I've never wanted so much to scoop up all eighty-four of our students and hug them. I wanted to tell each one that they are precious and important. As details of the elementary school massacre in CT rolled in via iPhones and laptops, the faces that sprang up in my mind were those of our own students. I just kept thinking, Thank You, Jesus, it wasn't our kids. It wasn't our school, or our teachers. Today, it wasn't us.
Later on, when work was done and I had time to process, I reflected on the comments of our President. ABC reported that during the President's press conference he made calls for meaningful action in light of the attacks, and for the past twenty-two hours, it seems the whole nation has murmured about what meaningful action might be. Who is to blame in an atrocity like this? We know the shooter was out of his mind, but could we have stopped him? If we're to take action, who do we blame?
Just to be clear, I am absolutely not going to have the gun-control discussion on this blog. I am not a political writer, and I prefer to keep my political opinions to myself, as silent and private as a voting booth. So, who do we blame and how do we take meaningful action? Mr. President, I agree that action must be taken. However, if I may offer up a humble opinion, if the only blame we attribute is to a type of weapon, then we've missed the point. There is so much more than that.
King Herod the Great murdered dozens of children in Bethlehem by the sword.
Robespierre invented the infamous guillotine during the French Reign of Terror to manipulate and intimidate the people of France.
Hitler murdered millions using starvation and gas in concrete chambers.
Bin Laden used airplanes to wipe out thousands who were on their way to work.
The London subway bomber used bleaches, cell phones, and gardening supplies to kill commuters on the London underground.
We can talk about weapons certainly, but they aren't the deadliest thing on earth. I think the root of the tragedy lies much deeper, and where is it? It's burrowed in you right now.
Jeremiah 17:9 says "The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?"
We know this.Regardless of whether you are a person of faith or not, I think that in the farthest crevices of our consciences, in the catacombs of our hearts, we know this. We are fully aware of how depraved we are. We may ignore it, or bury it under cluttered piles of self-assurances that I'm really a good person, but we know. What do we think about when left to the solitude of our minds? What comes out of our mouths when we feel we are wronged, or we are suddenly angry? We know better than anyone how dark our own hearts can be. We each know what it is to be desperately wicked.
Now, we are not all going to murder a group of innocent people, thank God. Yet, God says that the parameters are not so clearly drawn as we would like to believe. 1 John 3:15 states"Whosoever hates his brother is a murderer: and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him." We've all hated. We've all felt indignation, and here God says that we are as bad as murderers. We're as bad as a man who takes a gun into a public place and opens fire, and there is no eternal life of redemption in us.
So where's the hope? Do we mull about like monsters feeling awful about our fallen, human state, and hoping we don't go bats and start hurting people? No. Thank God, we can take meaningful action.
Ephesians 1:7 says "In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace."
Don't you find it ironic that the only way for our murderous, dark hearts to be redeemed required the murder of the only perfect person who has ever lived? Even our salvation required humanity's darkness to prevail for three short days. We desperately need salvation. We need God's perfect, pure love, and His unparalleled grace, because it is the only truly good thing in us. That's the action required to stifle the evil: we have to surrender dirty hearts, and accept the love of God.
Continue to pray for the families of the precious people who were murdered this week by darkness. Pray and reflect, but don't forget and don't despair. Meaningful action begins in us. Our hearts and minds need to be claimed by love and the Light of the World.
LOVE
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