A Dark Day

I believe we have all been shaken by the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. I myself spent most of the day at work and didn't get to watch videos from the news until 1 o'clock the evening after it occurred. I'm not sure if it was the terror on the faces of the parents or the calmness of the children interviewed that shook me the most. Did they understand what they just survived? Surely the survivors of the Century 16 movie theatre understand. I think that after events like this occur, most of us ask many questions. Why children? How could anyone do such a thing? What is wrong with him? After we start to digest the facts, scarier questions come to mind. What's keeping such a thing from happening to me? What if someone I know turns out to be just like these guys? What if I receive a phone call from my child's school?

Questions without answers. The truth is, evil exists in this world. True evil. We pretend we're safe, locking our doors at night and always keeping our cell phones on us, but we can never truly be safe. I had to learn a very tough lesson a few years ago. We are not immune to the evil of this world. While we ourselves may resist temptation and cling to our salvation, the consequences of other's actions are not shielded from us. Believing in Christ does not save us from the evil that resists him. In fact, we are more prone to attacks from Satan. (2 Timothy 3:12.) The more important we are to the kingdom of Christ, the more resistance we find. The tough truth is that we should live to expect these kinds of things to happen. We should live not clinging to what little we've been given but clinging to the eternal salvation we have been offered. When we see others attacked, our hearts ache as one body. We pray for the strength of our brother or sister enduring trial. We learn from their hardship and we wait for our turn. Because the only difference between them and us is that they're living in their trial while we're watching.

What makes it worth it? Hope. Hope that despite the overwhelmingly evil world we live in, we have something to live for. Besides trying to keep our feeble bodies alive for as long as possible. Besides trying to avoid masked gunman. We have a hero. We win! One day I have a home to go home to that has no murderers. I have a home that IS safe. I won't have to lock my doors. I won't have to pretend. Knowing that I am living each moment hanging on to life by a thread is not discouraging to me because I know about the peace that is waiting for me. I'm reaching out to the fireman on the ladder, ready to catch me when the ledge beneath me breaks. Stay strong for our brothers and sisters, but let go of this world. And share your hope with others, because not everyone has it. Some live avoiding death with no hope of escape.