Take Courage

Another Tragedy. Once again tragedy has struck. Once again the presence of evil has been made manifest. Once again the papers, news and social media sites have erupted with pictures and stories of the tragic event.

26 dead, 20 injured - 10 remaining in critical condition.

Just a month ago our country was grieving the horrific loss of 59 people killed while attending a music festival in Las Vegas, then, just last week, a truck attack killed 8 in New York, followed by this...26 people killed in church. 

If you're anything like me, you've begun to go numb. 

Numb to the images, numb to the pain.   

While numbing ourselves is a natural response to an overwhelming, and nonsensical pain, those of us who are disciples of Jesus Christ have been given a much different charge - not of retreat, but of moving into the pain and dark places.

Jesus had Compassion. In our society, we have been taught to remain strong, don't show your weakness, and never cry. Jesus models a different way; He models compassion. Jesus saw the crowds, the sick and the lost and was moved with compassion. Compassion involves kindness and goodness to the miserable and the afflicted; joined with a desire to help them. In order to have compassion, Jesus had to look. He had to look on the pain. Look at the people in distress. While I'm not encouraging you to look up images of this tragedy, I am encouraging you to look - look at the loss of life, acknowledge the pain of friends and family, feel the weight of a mourning community. Shed tears and let your heart feel. One of the worst things to come of so much tragedy is a culture immune to the loss of life. Our hearts should break when we hear of such pain and we should be moved with compassion, like Jesus. 

Let your Light Shine. Besides slowly cooking us into a state of numbness, our evil adversary would like nothing better than Christ-followers (His Little Lights) to become afraid and hide. "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do men light a lamp, and put it under the peck measure, but on the lampstand; and it gives light to all who are in the house." (Mt. 5:14-15) It is our job to shine the Light of Jesus to a dark and dying world. Please do not be afraid- take courage!  "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that." Martin Luther King Jr. We must go into the world in greater force shinning our light before all people! 

Free Choice of Life. The presence of evil in our world is a reminder to me of a compassionate God who offers us a choice. A choice to choose evil (darkness) or a choice to choose God (light). Evil exists in our world because someone has chosen evil over God. God could have created a people of robots who would follow His commands with no questions asked. As we know, that would not be a true relationship. Relationships need to have choices and the awareness of such horrific and evil acts are a reminder of the choice we each must make daily. 

Hope in the Lord. C.S. Lewis once wrote, "God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world." It is during times of tragedy that people are most receptive to conversations about faith. We have the greatest hope of all - Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, Redeemer of mankind, and Restorer of all Creation! Let's be people who proclaim the peace of God and bring the hope of Jesus to a world shrouded in darkness.

"These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world." John 16:33

Be at peace, sweet readers, and don't be afraid! "Greater is He that is in me, than He that is in the world." While we can't make sense of tragedies like the shootings in Texas or Las Vegas, we can put our hope in a loving God who promises to be with us and bring justice to our world.