A senseless tragedy. A raging lunatic. A broken community. A country in shock.
How could this happen, we ask as we think about the unimaginable pain of the victims? Where is God in all of this? Couldn’t he have prevented this? The comments fly on facebook. Anger causes people to say unthinkable things. “Death is too sweet for this madman…Hell is not a good enough punishment…” I understand their anger. I see the desperation of their hearts. I know how sharply the thought of going through this pierces the soul.
Our hearts cry out as fear creeps in. We blame the schools. We blame the laws. We search for some way to understand this devastation. The normal reaction is to protect. Attempt to control our lives so that nothing like this ever happens. We close in to ourselves, making sure that all protective barriers are in place.
Things like this cause me to wonder many things. Horror is followed quickly by anger, which is never far from fear.
And I cry out, “Where are you God?”
His response? “In you.”
A world in darkness has seen a great light. Yet we bask in the light of Christmas while the world waits in hopelessness, desperate for a Savior.
A couple years ago, I was deeply immersed in ministry. I was involved in everything at church. Teaching, writing, leading, planning. Driving 25 minutes to church several times a week in order to change the lives of those I would minister to. A lady two houses down from me committed suicide one afternoon. I had never met her. I didn’t even know her name.
And I cry out, “Where are you God?”
“In you.”
Yes, we have a problem in this country. But it’s not the problem that everyone is raging about. People living in darkness can’t see where they are going. How can we expect them to? We shine the light on our own families and circles, and then we are shocked to find that the world is drowning in darkness. For the month of December, we catch a glimpse of the despair. We see pictures of starving people in Africa. We remember the homeless downtown. But no one reminds us about the boy in a third grade class whose anger is building because he gets made fun of on a daily basis. No one tells us to reach out to the family down the street because the dad is an alcoholic and the children live in constant fear. We drive across town and send our money overseas to help with noble causes. But there are children in our schools, our neighborhoods, and maybe even our churches who are lonely and hopeless, crying out for help. When will the church wake up? How many tragedies will it take before we stop hiding in fear and start bringing the light of Jesus to a dark and dying world?
Every single “monster” who has committed one of these heinous crimes has a story of deep loneliness, hopelessness, and darkness. So tonight, yes, hold your children close. Cling to them, sing to them, and thank God it wasn’t them. But remember that there may be a child down the street from you who isn’t being held tonight. A child desperate for the light, but stumbling in the darkness.
“Where are you God?”
“In you.”
And if we grasp this, then a world living in darkness will indeed see a great LIGHT!!!
