Another One

Sometimes it feels as though the world is falling apart.  Last week the report came in from California and the mass shootings there.  But it was Paris before that and Colorado Springs before that and before that and before that.  These attacks have a familiarity to them.  Shooters against an unsuspecting crowd.  They seem as random as they are horrific.  And they leave us with this unsettled feeling that no where is safe.  These kinds of attacks are different than a war.  In a war there is a front line.  There are those in the fight and those in the rear.  This could happen any place or any time.

And if the details have become to feel familiar, the responses even more so.  We need to either expand the number of people carrying guns, or reduce the number of guns or increase services for mental health or close the borders or monitor immigrants or build a wall around the country or send in the troops or pull out all of the troops or increase foreign aid or cut the aid all together. Or Or Or Or. I don't pretend to have the answers.  Like everyone else, I have opinions, but very little expertise.  I do have a funny feeling that none of it will actually make us safer and most of it would probably end up making it worse.

We have a society that is free and open.  We are a society of immigrants and their descendants.  We live with those of different backgrounds and faiths.  What makes this country great is not the rule of the majority, but respect for the rights of the minority.  I fear that for the sake of preserving our country we would be willing to destroy everything that makes our country worth preserving.  I think that in a free country there are a lot of openings for evil to exploit.  If you are methodically planning to do evil things, there will be your opportunity.  

The world can be a dark place and the situation can feel hopeless.  But in the darkness is where light shines the brightest.  It is in dark times that we can stand up and confront evil with the only force that has a chance, love.  We can not out fear or out hate those who would do us harm.  Personally, I don't have it in me.  Jesus taught us to love our neighbors as ourselves.  It is not an easy calling, but it might be the only one that works.

As Christians, this should be our finest hour.  Not where we hide and cower, but where we stand.  Jesus came to bring light to a dark world.  He came for me and he came for you and he came for Syed Rizwan Farook and he came for Tasheen Malik.  He came for those who are plotting to do harm and those who are just living their lives.  He came because no matter how much evil was in the world, God wouldn't stop loving us.

Watch this video from Pastor Chris.

Bearing witness to the light.  As Christians we know Hope where the world sees hopelessness.  We know Love where the world sees hate.  We know Faith where the world sees fear.  It is our call to bear witness to this so that others may know it too.

It is difficult to love those who would do us harm.  Really difficult.  But we are called to get to that place where we can say to them it doesn't matter if you hate me.  It doesn't matter what you plot against me.  It doesn't matter how much you hurt me.  But what you can't do is stop me from loving you.  That's up to me and you have no power over that.  And after all, THAT is what God said to us when he sent Christ to Earth.

Merry Christmas.