I’d like to make a joke about me being speechless, but this is not the time. Like many of you I am speechless over the events from the weekend. The massacre at Newtown shakes me to the core. A parent’s worst nightmare come to fruit. I teacher’s worst dreams come true. A school leader’s horror. An awakening that all is not well.
We can take potshots at gun control…but that is not the answer.
We can take potshots at parental control…but that is not the answer.
We can take potshots at school security…but that is not the answer.
We can even take potshots at taking God out of the schools…but that is not the answer.
None of the above could have stopped the carnage. An evil man did an evil deed. In China. In Aurora. 9/11.
THERE IS ONLY ONE ANSWER AND IT IS THE ANSWER NO ONE WANTS TO HEAR!
We celebrate The Answer’s birth in just over a week. I’m not going to go into any more detail because I know there will be those who will want to argue that fact. And frankly, I don’t feel like arguing. I am speechless. But I will stand by One Truth: There is only One Answer to the whole mess we are in. Sadly, many will miss it and many won’t even care.
Here is a song that I am sure you have heard before with a slightly different arrangement. The story behind it is heart-wrenching. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote it out of his intense personal pain. The loss of his first wife. Remarriage after 7 years of loneliness and welcoming 5 children into that union. Then tragically, while lighting candles for the Christmas tree his wife’s clothes caught fire and she died. Then the Civil War broke out. He hated the Civil War and when his 19 year old son returned home injured, and he saw other wounded soldiers and families torn apart by death, his hatred turned to rage. He put pen to paper and wrote this poem. It would have been a hopeless effort if not for his last two stanzas. Our best hope is to say the same.
If you have any thoughts you would like to share I invite you to do so.
Without Christ we are evil and wicked.
Sums it up.
As a teacher of young children and the aunt of a Kindergartener this one hit a little too close to home. I have struggled all weekend with questions. And you know what I have realized, it’s okay to ask those questions because ultimately my search for the answer is going to lead me right to the one who is THE ANSWER. This event has affected me in such a way that I had a perspective shift and am taking steps to recognize that my life is not my own and this world is not my home and to share that truth with others.
It is a reality that you live with every day. I live with that every day your mom goes to work because of irate people. Nothing wrong with perspective shifts if they are in the right direction.
I AM STANDING, WAVING MY HANKIE ENCOURAGING YOU TO PREACH IT BROTHER, PREACH IT.
Thanks Betty.
Well said. This world is in desperate need for Jesus.
I’ll definitely agree with that Rob. Thanks for visiting.
Do you really think that Jesus will prevent mentally ill people from committing evil acts. I don’t understand the answer or maybe I don’t understand the question.
No I don’t think He will prevent it. Mentally ill people are in a “world” all their own. I am saying though that unless and until we realize doing our own things and going our own way and “I did it my way” philosophy is not going to bring answers, we will continue the downward slide. Our president calls for change. Gun control laws ain’t going to do it. Heightened security in schools ain’t going to do it either. Etc. We need to find a moral base that we left long time ago.
People don’t kill with their guns, they kill with their hearts. (Paraphrase of something Stephen King wrote.)
Like the quote Susan.
Uh, yeah, Jesus would rebuke that demon right out of the mentally ill….
Allowed this but not sure exactly how you meant it Ed. 🙂
Well mentally ill 2000 years old would probably mean they had a demon in them. And only demons shoot and kill in today’s world. So Jesus would have rebuked the demon, right? 😉
I would say Yes if he was in the area, but since He couldn’t be everywhere at the same time, it could present some challenges.
I have to defer to my preacher brothers on this. Some say Jesus is omnipresent. Which is what Ed is suggesting. Apparently you think he is not. Of course I agree with you on this one.
God? Yes. Jesus in human form? No. Taking on human form meant taking on the limitations of being human. Unless I miss my guess, being omnipresent isn’t one of them.
I wish I could agree with you but it seems a lot more complicated than that. I think it just may be unavoidable.
Surely there is more to it, Jeff. I wasn’t trying to oversimplify. But. I do firmly believe that it begins, at least, as a heart problem. Greed, anger, jealousy and fear are some of the motivations that have led to murder.
I think in the present situation in Conn. it is a mental health problem. The kid was in need of help. I don’t think in this case it was greed, fear, anger, etc. It was madness that he couldn’t control or understand.He needed help and didn’t get it. I am so disgusted by the eveangelicals that say it was because we took prayer out of school or that God is upset with American politics or Gays are the problem or all the other bullshit they are going to throw out there.
You have stated exactly what I was trying to say Jeff. This is not a “taking God out of school” issue or gun control issue, or any other issue. This is a mental health issue that wreaked havoc. Sadly.
I am going to guess that your heart and mine are equally grieving for the parents and community that are dealing with this horror. I don’t get the Jesus thing but I do get the heart thing.
In that you are exactly right.
I am speechless, I am numb, I have not even questions…but then, neither have I answers other than the one you just have:
Christ
Only Christ
Thanks for the contribution MS.
I am still crying, and for multiple reasons. And if I see the poster about God not allowed in school just one more time I will scream.
Yeah, know what you mean about the poster.
I agree whole heartedly. And the rhetoric of the lost trying to piece together answers for the acts and the future of preventing it is as sad as the acts themselves… More souls dying… I’m grieved to the point of silence as well…
Rhetoric of the lost is a good way to put it Floyd. No answers there for sure.
One word does sum it up…evil.
No rub here on that one.
its funny how we write about the same things sometimes 🙂
the events in Connecticut are heartbreaking. there are many unanswered questions…here in the natural anyway.
It is hard to watch – but as long as people run and run from God – life is not going to be easy nor will there be many answers.
there is only One answer.
Yours was a good one Craig. i would like to ask folks to go read it.
I wrote about this today as well. I guess that I too am speechless … and lost and frustrated and angry … and questioning and sick of it all.
As am I Daniel.
The evil and suffering that characterizes so much of our existence in this world, will never end,
But our Lord has also subjected Himself to it and it lead Him to a Cross.
He does not ordain the evil and suffering in this world. it was NOT His will for those people to be killed …but He uses it all (somehow) for His purposes. He suffers along with us. He knows the grief. He knows the pain.
Totally agree with your thoughts Steve. He does not ordain nor was it His will. I do pray it will be used for His purposes.
I didn’t know the backstory behind that song. To have your wife die like that – eek, the horror.
Not once but twice. Double horror. But Longfellow remembered where the strength and peace came from.
Thank you for helping us today .. .for ministering to us. And thank you for the song. God bless you!
You’re welcome Deb. Hope it is helping.
Beautiful, powerful song. Thanks for posting it. I was grieved the whole weekend, I haven’t questioned why, I just know it was evil & my God is authority over all things. Praying that maybe 1 good thing might come out of this horror. As a person who works in elementary school, I love each & every child in that school, so I just grieved over the fact that this can happen anywhere. My heart is broken for these families of all who have been changed forever….until He comes. Thanks for writing this Bill…..you said it perfectly.