Posted in Connecting with God
This morning, my thoughts are on Bailey, a little town down US 285. I've spent time there when our bus broke down. It's just a tiny town down at the foot of Crow Hill where the highway joins the Platte River. Yesterday, Duane Morrison, a 54 year-old man raided their Platte Canyon High School, took hostages, molested them, and then fought a gun battle with sherriff's deputies, killing one of his hostages and then himself.
People will inevitably recall Columbine High School in the process of trying to make sense of it all. While the scene of the crimes are similar, I don't believe the motive is. Harris and Klebold were motivated by a desire for revenge on the caste system within the school. Morrison was there for an entirely different purpose, judging by what's being said of his actions. Regardless of his motive, people still wonder why such things happen.
I can't really say I have a concrete answer beyond the philosophical and moral aspects. Humans can do extreme evil to other humans. It is a symptom that there is something deeply wrong with us. We kill, destroy, maim, and injure. Who among us has not had anger to the point of rage against another being in the course of our lives? We are all capable of violence, given the right circumstances. It's only our restraints, internal and external, that keep us from carrying it out.
This brings little comfort to the families of those involved in this latest tragedy. I hate death. I hate the pain. I hate everything about the seemingly permanent separation from those we love. Yet it comes. As naturally as we are born, we die. Losing someone in death is about as great a pain as we can face in this life. It is the direct result of our sin disease. Even good people die because no one is free of sin. Therefore, I hate sin and what it does to each of us. What we could be, we aren't. What we are, we shouldn't have become. It is a twisting, a destructive wrenching away from what was intended. We are right to hate it and the results it brings.
Oddly, that does not stop us from committing it or from watching others involved in it. It is a morbid fascination. We grasp the weapon that wounds us and we draw fresh blood. We feel the heat of the fire, draw it into our laps, and then wonder why it is painful. We are a long way from the paradise we intuitively know we were made for. Our hearts grieve the distance. We long to be at peace with others and with ourselves. We long for the cool of the day in the garden. And every loss deepens our grief. We are alone in the dark, waiting to die.
Yet hope remains. God has not been silent. No one else could have intervened, yet out of mercy and gracious love, he did intervene for us. God hates death and separation even more than we do. He loves us and reaches out for us. In a way, that only he could work, he opened the door, shining a light into our darkness, reaching in. We need only reach up for his hand. We need to choose him and choose against this disease. We choose the gift of restoration over the sin and death. While we all must pass through death, those who choose him will not really die, nor will we experience the final "living death" of separation from all that is good. But we need to choose today. If you want to make that choice, click the button below.
People will inevitably recall Columbine High School in the process of trying to make sense of it all. While the scene of the crimes are similar, I don't believe the motive is. Harris and Klebold were motivated by a desire for revenge on the caste system within the school. Morrison was there for an entirely different purpose, judging by what's being said of his actions. Regardless of his motive, people still wonder why such things happen.
I can't really say I have a concrete answer beyond the philosophical and moral aspects. Humans can do extreme evil to other humans. It is a symptom that there is something deeply wrong with us. We kill, destroy, maim, and injure. Who among us has not had anger to the point of rage against another being in the course of our lives? We are all capable of violence, given the right circumstances. It's only our restraints, internal and external, that keep us from carrying it out.
This brings little comfort to the families of those involved in this latest tragedy. I hate death. I hate the pain. I hate everything about the seemingly permanent separation from those we love. Yet it comes. As naturally as we are born, we die. Losing someone in death is about as great a pain as we can face in this life. It is the direct result of our sin disease. Even good people die because no one is free of sin. Therefore, I hate sin and what it does to each of us. What we could be, we aren't. What we are, we shouldn't have become. It is a twisting, a destructive wrenching away from what was intended. We are right to hate it and the results it brings.
Oddly, that does not stop us from committing it or from watching others involved in it. It is a morbid fascination. We grasp the weapon that wounds us and we draw fresh blood. We feel the heat of the fire, draw it into our laps, and then wonder why it is painful. We are a long way from the paradise we intuitively know we were made for. Our hearts grieve the distance. We long to be at peace with others and with ourselves. We long for the cool of the day in the garden. And every loss deepens our grief. We are alone in the dark, waiting to die.
Yet hope remains. God has not been silent. No one else could have intervened, yet out of mercy and gracious love, he did intervene for us. God hates death and separation even more than we do. He loves us and reaches out for us. In a way, that only he could work, he opened the door, shining a light into our darkness, reaching in. We need only reach up for his hand. We need to choose him and choose against this disease. We choose the gift of restoration over the sin and death. While we all must pass through death, those who choose him will not really die, nor will we experience the final "living death" of separation from all that is good. But we need to choose today. If you want to make that choice, click the button below.
