From
Romans 12:1-14
H,
It
is hard to ignore the everyday tragedy that is unfolding over there. When
disaster stays a while it can seem to become a part of life itself and normalcy
may remain if you view it from a distance. Yet, to those living in this
tragedy, and you serve some of them; it is not something that can be looked at
with a detached heart. It is a daily look into the abyss and the stinging
remainder that all life is fragile in this form of skin and bones.
It is
easy to go dark and seek a violent solution. War against war is the easy fix
for everything and though it may be, and I say this grinding my teeth, palliative
in the short term it has no panacea for a lifetime of peace. The ultimate cure
has to be the remedying of a man’s soul. I am making no excuse for evil nor am I
saying it should not be confronted. I am saying that there may be souls lost in
the dark-world of these terrible crimes but it does not remove from us the
objective of love to our enemies and blessings for our persecutors. It is something
Christ did himself. He would not invite us to do the same otherwise.
We pray
that does innocents return and we pray that does who are responsible are caught
in the web of their own great travesty against right. Can we not also pray that
though the bodies are destroyed the soul can live? That truth spreads in the
land and reform comes from conflict? Am I going too far?
Let me
go back. I have used the worst example but the better one is more personal. We have
been down this particular road before. We know what it is to pray blessings on
those who deserve only curses. How about that face you cannot stand or that
voice that makes you gag? How about those that misunderstand you and talk you
down and spread lies? How about the ones that break you heart and wound your
soul? Christian character is the hardest thing on earth. This is where it shows
its best hand: resisting evil but not condemning the evil avatar. Praying for
the lost and seeking that all bad is turned to good. In the hustle bustle of
this present life these might seem like mundane issues next to power bills and
flashy decoders. In the reality of eternity these are the things that do not
change. This is the man vividly described in psalm 15. This is Christ. This is
who we are to be.