Good and Evil?

As you head to your weekend, you no doubt are aware of the horror that has unfolded in Connecticut. 

Our prayers are with the victims and their families and those who came to help. At times like this we must “come together.”

When you think about, we don’t, as a nation, come together much these days; except in times of tragedy.

We used to come together as a nation in so many other ways - in and among so many other circumstances. Not so much anymore – we seem so divided.

Our nation once shared a God who we nearly all prayed to. Increasingly, the loudest voices in the nation are hostile to that God and those who worship him. The conversation at times regarding evil is immediately drowned out by political opportunists seeking to drive their agenda.

About the only time we ever come together as a nation anymore is when savage tragedy happens. When men fly planes into tall buildings or gun down children or shoot up a movie theater, we gather, pray, and cry.

It is not healthy for a nation that only comes together during acts of tragedy. What if our nation gathered, prayed and cried at times other than when tragedy strikes?

When tragedy strikes, we come together in part, because we feel helplessness. Coming together surely makes us feel like we can do something. But we can do nothing in the face of evil until we confront evil itself.

The tragedy unfolding today is not merely an act of the insanity, but first and foremost – it is an act of evil. My Biblical and spiritual understanding tells me that such evil may drive the shooter insane; but in focusing on the insanity we lose focus on the evil.

There is really real good and there is really real evil in the world. Often when someone states this obvious reality; secularists and atheists have loudly chimed in to ridicule. They will certainly do so again.

In the midst of this tragedy today – we have a real moment to assess why we are careening out of control both morally and socially. So… instead of discussing politics or our laws, we should discuss the reality that both evil and good exist. We should accept that there is a God in Heaven; that he created man in his image; and that mankind has been and still is a fallen people. We should accept that He is real; that we need Him desperately – and cry out to Him!

We need to draw near to - and return to the God from whom we have, as a nation, drifted so far away from.

If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

2 Chronicles 7:14

Please pray with me for the victims, the families, the friends and community so tragically hurt and horrified by the terrible shooting today in Connecticut.

Please pray with me for our nation.