Oct
4
2017
Evil Unleashed
Posted in Faith 2 Comments
The morning after our wonderful weekend away, my daughter-in-love sent a text to the family.
Did anybody see the news this AM?
The answers came in rapid succession.
My son sent a link to a news article for those of us who had not heard about the tragedy.
I answered with my first thought as I read about the evil unleashed.
Only God can change hearts and restore peace and sanity.
This is what it looks like without Him.
I reminded each of them how much I love them.
I thought about my response throughout the day.
This is what it looks like without Him.
There are those who would say, God could have stopped this.
The question is inevitably asked, Where was God?
Where is God in suffering? He’s in it with us, and in it for us. (Thabiti Anyabwile)
God was with the people as they came down the stairs of the Twin Towers.
God was with the people ravaged by the most recent hurricanes.
God was with the people as they ran for their lives at the concert in Las Vegas.
God is with us.
To a suffering person, those words sound cliche.
God is with us?
Sure.
To a suffering person, those words of Truth bring Hope.
God’s ways are not our ways; we can never figure Him out.
If we could figure Him out, He would not be God.
I want a God who is beyond me.
I want a God who is sovereign, all powerful, all-knowing, and ever-present.
I have heard countless stories of total strangers helping the wounded.
I have heard reports of the first responders who ran towards the evil while others ran away.
I heard the story of a husband who used his body to shield his wife.
She lived; he died saving her.
When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” (Fred Rogers)
Mr. Rogers’ mother taught her son well.
Look for the helpers.
Amid evil unleashed, natural disasters, and senseless violence, God sprinkles helpers among us.
Sometimes the helpers are us; sometimes we are the ones being helped.
I heard of a man who was bleeding profusely after being shot in the leg.
His pants were soaked.
The blood pooled into his shoes.
He knew that he was dying.
Someone made a tourniquet out of a belt.
They tried to help the best they could.
Another passerby saw the bleeding man and realized that the tourniquet was in the wrong place.
He adjusted the belt to where it should be and stopped the bleeding.
Someone in a pick-up truck stopped by and offered help.
The helpers put the bleeding man in the flatbed of the truck.
The bleeding man was taken to the hospital.
His life and leg were saved.
Look for the helpers.
They are there.
Sometimes they are anonymous.
Sometimes they have a name and we are able to thank them.
Law enforcement seeks to find answers as to the Why of it all.
What led that man to shoot innocent people in an open space where they had no cover?
Law enforcement have searched his house and his car.
They will search his computer and his social media activity.
They will do a thorough job to try to piece together the reason behind this horrific act.
No matter what they find in their thorough search, there is one root cause.
Sin.
The same sin that plagues each of us; the same sin that needs to be redeemed.
When I fixed limits for it and set its doors and bars in place, when I said, This far you may come and no farther; here is where your proud waves halt. (Job 38:10,11)
God’s hand is over all that He has made.
If God removed His hand, evil would have no boundaries.
The enemy of our soul is on a leash.
The enemy of our soul thrashes about and pours out his evil on what God has made.
This far you may come and no farther.
There is a limit to evil.
God is in control.
The heart of God grieves over the evil unleashed on what He declared, Good.
Jesus wept at the tomb of His friend, Lazarus.
The God-man, Jesus, was overcome with this sin-infested world.
The God-man, Jesus, present at Creation with the Father and the Spirit, wept.
Evil, death, and sin are not good.
One day, Jesus will come back.
Jesus will redeem this fallen world and again make it, good.
Look for the Helper.
Every eye will see Him on that day.
Then and forevermore, it will be good.
Where is God in suffering?
He is in it with us.
He is in it for us.
Great answers to “why?” We will never really know what is in the mind of God when these things happen. Like you said, His ways are not our ways. Maybe we need a wakeup call as a nation. I definately think gun laws need to be changed. No law abiding citizen should mind this and no one but the military needs assault weapons. But there are other ways evil can happen. The main thing to remember is that we need to be ready to meet God, whenever it happens. This involves knowing Christ as our Saviour and accepting Him and the grace He brings.
Thank you for your thoughts, Sue. This is a fallen world. We are a fallen people.
But God, in His mercy, sent His Son, Jesus, to redeem us. What Hope we have in Him.
Gina