Wow. What a
difference a day makes, huh? April 15th…..Our
annual, dreaded tax day. Most of us were
probably either stewing over it or sarcastically joking about it. Well, the first part of the day anyway. Plus,
it was Monday. Mondays are crazy around
here, as they probably are for many of you.
For me, it’s often a frazzling day of in and out, running around, and
picking up the house after the weekend.
I got in from one round of errands around 12:30 and took a breather to
eat some lunch and, of course, catch up on Facebook, before I had to go pick up
the boys at 1:30, take them to batting practice, fix supper, and you know…..the
rest of the list that ensues on a typical school night with 3 children. I
ended up not even eating lunch, though.
As I pulled up my Facebook page, I saw K-Love, the Christian music
station, had posted this:
“Breaking
News: Two explosions near the finish
line at the Boston Marathon. Some
injuries. Details are sketchy for the moment.
Please pray.”
My heart sank and I suddenly lost my appetite. I put my phone down, pulled out the laptop
and sat glued to the news until time to go get the boys. I’m sure I was one of millions who sat in
disbelief at the horror unfolding. It
looked like a war zone but, this time…..it was on an American street. I guess that was the “disbelief” part of
it. Not that we have never been under
attack. How could we ever forget the
crumpling of the twin towers on 9/11 and the faces in the pictures of all the
missing people feared to be inside, or the bombing of the federal building in
Oklahoma City where among the casualties were 19 toddlers and preschoolers attending daycare inside the building? As
horrendous and unforgettable as those were, nothing really prepares us for
seeing our own citizens in the streets, bleeding and maimed. With all of the smart phones and people ready
to snap shots of loved ones crossing the finish line Monday, the reality of the
depravity that exists in our world was suddenly inescapable.
When people are suddenly aware of this depravity, we begin
to hear words rarely spoken by the media and government officials anymore:
words like evil, prayer and blessings. We
may see trends in the news in the wake of tragedies like the Sandy Hook shootings
and the Boston Marathon bombing of people sometimes questioning God, but most
often, we see people begin to offer prayers for others or count their own
blessings. I ran across a quote from
C.S. Lewis Sunday night before the marathon bombing and had actually shared it
on my Facebook page. It explains this
phenomenon better than I could:
“If God were proud He would hardly have us on such terms: but He is not proud, He stoops to conquer. He will have us even though we have shown that we prefer everything else to Him, and come to Him because there is 'nothing better' now to be had.”
I think we'd all admit we have a country full
of much pride and focus on self-achievement.
More than that, we have steered away from labeling truths about right and wrong and
instead, placed emphasis on tolerance of everyone’s beliefs. Therefore, increasingly few will publicly
invoke the name of God for fear they’d seem “intolerant”. It’s no wonder, really, that it often takes
dramatic events like these for people to see their true need. As
C.S. Lewis said, we prefer everything else to Him, until there is nothing better
to be had. I think it’s safe to say that
those of us watching the aftermath on Monday felt helpless. Prayers were all we could offer. But, the thing is, nothing more was probably desired more than comfort, calm, and peace by
those affected…..the kind that is needed so down deep in our souls that nothing and no one else could provide other than our Creator. People who aren’t even believers have
something deep within them (called a soul) that, in these times, recognizes a
reality they’ve spent much of their lives trying to deny…..and they call on Him. Even
for believers…..We’ve all been there ourselves if we have any age on us at
all. You may have called your incident a
reality check or just a fresh dose of perspective. Sometimes, they come on much broader scales,
though, and can give a whole nation some perspective and a dose of
reality. I doubt any of the runners who
sacrificed so much and trained so hard to run the 26.2 miles were thinking of
their great personal achievement (and it was great) when they saw what happened
or heard the news of it. A whole other
realm of reality set in. The spiritual
realm.
The Good
Now, I do have to address the opposite trend that we often
see in such cases. We will
understandably often hear and even ask the question ourselves, “Why?”. However, some will go a step further and
rather than seek God, they will blame Him or use senseless tragedies as
evidence to deny Him. You know what I'm talking about. There will always
be those who will hold on to their pride even in the face of such reality and
ask the age old question, “IF there was a God and He was so good……how could he
allow this??” That always reminds me of the
Pharisees when Jesus was on the cross….”IF you are the Son of God….prove it….save
yourself…come down off the cross and then, we’ll believe you.” If He revealed every mystery (as though we
could understand)…..then we’d believe Him.
Maybe. I mean, the Pharisees were
staring at prophecy fulfilled and witnessed the power of God in many miracles
and they still refused. So, let me be clear to any who may take issue
with God on this: We have freedom of choice in this country. That’s not a novel idea that originated with our
founding fathers. They simply understood that it was a right we were
born with…..correction…..created with. That’s why they wisely chose the famous words
“endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; Among these are the
right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” (Though I think the
pursuit of happiness could’ve been left out or more wisely worded….but, that’s
another blog in itself). We were most definitely created to be free
thinkers…..much like our Creator. The only flipside to God creating us with free
will was that some would not choose Him and His ways. They would choose the way of the world, the
way of self, and ultimately….the way of evil.
God, however, is good. All good
things come from Him.
James 5:13-17:
Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am
being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself
tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his
own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when
it is fully grown brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved
brothers. Every good gift and every
perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom
there is no variation or shadow due to change.
Just consider what we
really enjoy. Yes, there are plenty of
people who enjoy evil things or try to pervert things that were meant for good
into something bad (sex is a prime example.)
But, let’s just think about what we typically truly enjoy and deem as
“good”…… beautiful sunsets that have a different array of colors each time; the
quiet beauty of a giant oak; the smell of babies after they’ve had a bath and
are wrapped back up in your arms; the
way your skin feels soaking up the sun on a warm day after a long bout of cold;
laughing until your sides hurt or being
so happy you cry; the ability to hit a
baseball and watch it soar out of the park, to invent a revolutionary new
gadget, to create a masterpiece of music….or the ability to run the 26.2 miles
of a marathon in under 4 hours. They are
ALL gifts from a good and loving God, meant for our pleasure..…and He is
pleased to bless us.
See, God takes no pleasure in destruction….not even the
destruction of the wicked. I understand. Don’t you?
How many of us wish any harm on our children, even when they’ve tested
us every way possible?
The Bad
Ezekiel 18:23-29:
“Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares
the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live? But
when a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice
and does the same abominations that the wicked person does, shall he live? None
of the righteous deeds that he has done shall be remembered; for the treachery
of which he is guilty and the sin he has committed, for them he shall die.”
“Yet you say, ‘The
way of the Lord is not just. ’ Hear now, O house of Israel: Is my way not just?
Is it not your ways that are not just? When a righteous person turns away from
his righteousness and does injustice, he shall die for it; for the injustice
that he has done he shall die. Again, when a wicked person turns away from the
wickedness he has committed and does what is just and right, he shall save his
life. Because he considered and turned away from all the transgressions that he
had committed, he shall surely live; he shall not die. Yet the house of Israel
says, ‘The way of the Lord is not just. ’ O house of Israel, are my ways not
just? Is it not your ways that are not just?
(He goes on to plead with them in Ezekial 33:11): “Say to
them, ‘As I live, declare the LORD GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the
wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back
from your evil ways, for why will you die O house of Israel?”
You can read through the Old Testament and find that the
only destruction God ever delivered was directed at pure ugliness. As a matter of fact, as a whole, we would do
well to revisit some of those accounts and see if we look like any of those
people. I think many would be startled
at the resemblance. This could be a blog
all on its own. So, let me just offer a
practical suggestion for times when you ask or are asked questions about God’s
justice or goodness like I’ve often heard, “Why would a good God allow so many
people to be born into poverty, starvation, and desperation around the world?
How is that good?”: kindly reply, “He could ask us, particularly
in our country of excess, the same
thing.” Why do so many of us drive
$50,000+ vehicles, take vacations worth thousands, and pay obscene amounts of
money for our clothes and other “stuff” when it only costs $4,000 to place a
well for clean drinking water in disease ridden communities of 3rd
world countries and even less to feed a family for a year? Evil doesn’t begin with a fanatic with a
bomb. Pride in our hearts and love of
self gives birth to all manner of evil and injustice or allows us to simply overlook
it and blot it out of our minds. The
result is that we eventually become so disconnected from our source of good
that we forget what the “good stuff” really is and where it comes from. Not from within ourselves. That’s for sure. Is it any wonder why God hates pride so much
and opposes the proud?
I hope this doesn’t sound cliché, but, the “good stuff”
can’t be bought. Things like love, joy,
and peace….those are the things that are real and are what we
crave when everything else has failed us. Those things come from God
(whether we acknowledge Him or not). I
think that’s why we hear those words so much after tragedies like we had on
Monday. If anything good could come from
something like these bombings, it would be that people would remember where
their true comfort and security lies and ultimately…what’s real.
The Ugly
I truly believe that is the root of our problem: Somehow,
we’re no longer able to see what’s real
in this country. We are so easily and completely deceived. I have to say that I’m more than a little concerned
for our once great nation. I pray often
but need to pray persistently for wisdom for our leaders. And not the wisdom of the world…..that’s just
foolishness. We have plenty of
foolishness in our country already, don’t you think? The ugliness that results is an epidemic
really. Let’s take the gruesome story of
Kermit Gosnell’s clinical practices that have spotlighted late term abortions
in the news recently. It’s horrifying to
everyone but, for varying reasons. Some
are as outraged as I am at how negligently the women were treated, how these
late term babies were killed…..after birth, that so many people would seek such
services and especially so late in pregnancy and that so many others knew about
it, were ok with it or even helped. But, sadly and disturbingly, many are not
outraged for these reasons. Instead, I read articles about outrage at the
difficulty of obtaining abortions and the burden on women. As if society and government has pressured
these women to have unprotected sex and to wait until they are 5-6 months
pregnant before deciding if they want the baby or….. it’s the big bad
government or insurance company’s fault for not paying for their bad choices
and murderous acts that requires these women to resort to the likes of Kermit
Gosnell. Is this not absolute
foolishness?? I’m not unsympathetic to
their difficult and often dire circumstances.
We ALL make bad choices and not everyone has a family or support system
of any kind. However, anyone who has
been pregnant, felt the life inside them move as you usually can LONG before 24
weeks (the legal time limit for abortion), and still decides to end that
life……well, my understanding comes up short.
I don’t see how it could be seen as anything other than taking a human
life….AKA….murder. Ugly. Furthermore, I’ve heard all the arguments
but, still….how our government could say it’s a crime at 25 weeks and not 24
weeks is lost on me. Maybe that’s the
simpleton, Ellie Mae in me. I may be
simple, but, I do know what’s real.
So, I’m hopeful for our people and our country when I hear
words like prayer, blessings, and even evil in the media again. Because, people sound like they may be coming
to their senses…..like maybe the veil of the world is being pulled back from
their eyes and they are beginning to see a glimpse of the reality they’ve been
busy denying. Maybe if we could once
again distinguish between the good and the bad, our daily news wouldn’t be so
ugly. I have to tell you, though, when I
read the news today and hear how widely unpopular we are with countries such as
North Korea, Iran, Russia, etc. and barely tolerated by so many others, I
seriously have to stop and pray that God will not be so disgusted with us that
He removes His hand from us. If He did,
what happened in Boston Monday or in the offices of one Kermit Gosnell would be
the tip of an iceberg named ugliness.
Ugliness, as we said, is simply a byproduct of rejecting His ways and
following our own. I think that’s the ultimate judgment, whether
for an individual or for a nation…… the removal of His goodness. So, I would plead with everyone with a voice,
from President Obama, Matt Lauer, or Clint Eastwood to teachers, nurses, or
moms at the ballpark…..to please not disappear again behind the veil of
political correctness and re-create that false reality after the shock wears
off from this tragedy. As the kids say (though I could never pull it
off), please…do us all a favor and…. “keep it real.”
