The flag stood half-mast at our church this morning. I wondered if it was that way since the Colorado Springs fires, or if it was hung this weekend out of sorrow for the theater victims. My heart sank when I learned of the shootings in Aurora, CO Friday morning. 12 dead, including a six-year-old girl, and 58 injured. My tears flowed from a heart weary of ruin. Just four weeks ago, hundreds in our community lost their homes from a wildfire. The gorgeous mountainside is now a blackened reminder of the victimization of God’s creation and people’s homes.
Perhaps my reaction to Friday’s shooting spree during the Dark Knight premiere was a result of the accumulation of sorrow upon sorrow that so many Coloradans are feeling now. When does it end for our state? I wondered. What do you have for Colorado, Lord? We had at least nine wildfires this summer, and now this?
As I was getting ready for work the morning of the massacre, while watching the news reports, I began to pray for the victims. I was surprised to find myself also praying for the killer. What would make a young man (whom I later learned was until recently a doctoral student) put on a gas mask, arm himself to the hilt, and open fire on innocent people? People he didn’t know. Children! I was reminded that God’s love for that young man is as pure as His love for an honorable man or woman, because His love for us is not based on our behavior. His pleasure or displeasure is, but not His love. I prayed James Holmes would find his hope in Jesus. For only a man without hope could do what he did that dark night!
Senseless tragedies like this violent act often bring crises of faith. People wonder: Where was God? Why didn’t He stop it? Doesn’t He care? Is He powerless? A friend suggested that Randy Alcorn’s book, “God is Good,” might shed light on God’s purposes in the midst of the unthinkable; so I downloaded the book to my Kindle. This quote from page 34 seems appropriate for those seeking answers to those questions:
“Joni Eareckson Tada (a quadriplegic and follower of Jesus) writes, ‘God permits what he hates to accomplish that which he loves.’ Evil is never good, yet God can use any evil to accomplish good and sovereign purposes. Through the redemptive suffering of Christ – in which he took all human evils on himself (on the cross) – and through his triumph over evil and death, God has done everything necessary to defeat evil. One day he will carry out his final redemptive work: ‘He will swallow up death forever. The sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth. The Lord has spoken.’" Isaiah 25:8. (parentheses are mine)
I have been praying for revival since the fires began–revival in our city, state, and nation. So many seem to have forgotten God; or worse, deny His existence, love, and power. Often tragedies are the catalyst God uses to turn our thoughts toward Him and bring personal and corporate revival. I, for one, am seeking a closer relationship with Him as a result of the devastations of the past month. As I pray for revival, I ask God to begin with my own heart, as expressed in Isaiah 57:15:
“For this is what the high and lofty One says— he who lives forever, whose name is holy: ‘I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.’”
What is your response to His Word? Will you let this dark night at Dark Knight bring doubt about the goodness of God, or will you turn to the One who can bring revival to your own heart?
END
No comments:
Post a Comment