Last week, we watched as a terrible event unfolded before our eyes. As a result, seventeen people lost their lives and many more were injured both physically and emotionally. And one of the sad things is, this was not a once in a lifetime event in today’s world. Life shattering events like this seem to be happening with greater regularity.
Of course, then many people sat and watched or read the news, press briefings, and commentaries as people were quick to cast blame on everyone and everything you can imagine as usually happens after events like this. And, we can go on debating and arguing over who should be blamed, but in reality most people will not focus on the issues that are really at the bottom of these kind of tragic happenings.
One of the obvious causes of things like this is the removal of God and prayer from our schools and from many events, and thus so many young people who are looking for hope and looking for someone who loves them have no where to turn. However, we can not sit here and cast all of the blame on anti-God and anti-Christian people. Much of the underlying blame also goes to Christians as well. The Bible clearly tells us that we as Christians are to live as lights in this world of darkness, but when most of us live exactly the same as everyone else in the world lives – that doesn’t present much of an opportunity for any “light” to shine! And therefore, when young people such as this young man, who has destroyed countless lives, are looking for hope and looking for meaning in life – there isn’t much incentive for them to turn to churches or so-called Christians in today’s world. Besides, many churches today just entertain people, they don’t teach them the truth of God’s Word and the Gospel.
I hear a lot of people talking about how there were so many “signs” leading up to this event that should have been acted upon, and that is quite true. And many people argue that we should return God and prayer to our public schools, which I wholeheartedly agree with. However, if those who claim to know God and claim to pray to Him live no different than the rest of the world – it doesn’t really help as much as we would like to think it would.
To be honest, we don’t have to “bring God back” into our schools, because God hasn’t gone anywhere. We need to bring ourselves back to God! And we need to start following Jesus Christ in all that we say and do. We need to learn again to love God with ALL of our hearts and to love our neighbors as ourselves! We need to understand again that we must also love our enemies and do good even to those who hate us. We have to stop following the ways of the world, and even when others do hate us, laugh at us, and mock us – we must determine to be lights in this world….Lights that shine so brightly in the midst of this pervasive darkness around us that people who are seeking help come running and those who are desperately looking for meaning in life will be drawn to the life-changing Gospel of Jesus Christ!
And, I can already hear those who are anti-God saying we don’t want God in our schools! And that is fine, if YOU don’t want God, don’t believe in Him. That is entirely up to you! However, why should the fact that YOU don’t want to believe in God make you so angry that others might WANT to believe in Him? Why should the fact that Jesus Christ brings such peace and joy to other’s lives make you hate Him so? No one can or will force you to believe in God, but at least let others have a chance to hear about Him and make up their own minds if they want to believe in Him or not! And before you continue in your anti-God arguments, stop and consider what He offers!
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)