Political Correctness...No Thanks!

He raised a man from the dead!  A man who had been dead for four days.  It wasn't some type of illusion or trick. While Lazarus might be able to hold his breath for a couple of minutes, 4 days was a bit of a stretch.  Jesus didn't pull up in an ambulance ready to perform CPR as Lazarus was way past that point.  He had died, been prepared for burial, and placed in his tomb.  There were those standing around who saw this miracle and immediately believed in Him.  Others, however, feared the momentum that was gathering around this man, Jesus.  The Pharisees who heard of this event couldn't deny it happened. There were way too many eye witnesses.  They saw a man who was dead with rigor mortis taking over.  There was no doubt this man was dead because the stench of death was in the air.  There was no denying what happened that day.  A dead man was raised from the dead!

It is well documented that the Pharisees struggled with this Jesus.  He was stirring things up.  He was making things uncomfortable. He was doing things and saying things that were, well.....controversial. He was either unaware of the cultural/political climate or He just didn't care.  He didn't send out pollsters or get a consensus prior to speaking or acting out.  He was as unconcerned about what the religious leaders thought as He was about what the Roman government thought.  He seemed to fear none of them nor what they might do to Him.  He spoke the truth.  He lived the truth.  He was not  concerned about being culturally relevant, politically correct, popular, or gathering a crowd.  At the same time He didn't come to stand on a soap box.  He didn't strive to prove He was right.  He didn't condemn humanity because they opposed Him or His message.  He spoke the truth and allowed man to make a decision to believe that truth or not.  He granted mankind freedom.  Freedom to accept that truth and in doing so he chose life.  That same freedom afforded man the liberty to reject that truth and in doing so he condemned himself.  Wow, imagine that....personal responsibility!

Those who opposed Jesus that were standing around the tomb of Lazarus that day, saw the same miracle that many others saw that day.  And while many believed in Jesus after that miracle, these men responded completely different.  How could that be?  They witnessed a miracle that they could not deny, yet still were not on board with this man or His message.  What was the matter with these men?  What was holding them back?  What were they afraid of?

⁴⁶ But some of them went away to the Pharisees and told them the things Jesus did. ⁴⁷ Then the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered a council and said, “What shall we do? For this Man works many signs. ⁴⁸ If we let Him alone like this, everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and nation.” - John 11:46-48 (NKJV)

Wow, they were afraid of an oppressive government!  The truth is they had become puppets.  They worked hard not to rock the boat and in doing so, they maintained their power.  Along comes this Jesus and He starts rocking that boat.  They are convinced that if they don't step in and do something, the waves Jesus is making is going to sink the ship.  So, regardless of the incredible works He is doing, they reckon that the price is too high to pay to jump on board.  They could lose everything.  Their positions, power, and status are all at risk.  Persecution was certain and they wanted no part of that.  God forbid their faith cost them something. They wanted to simply sit back and do life as normal and they were willing to make whatever compromises they needed in order to maintain the status quo.  They had sold their souls in order to be comfortable.  

Jesus wasn't controversial for the sake of being controversial.  He didn't stir up things simply because He wanted to.  Jesus didn't set out to just tick people off. The clash between the truth and deceit, light and darkness is inevitable.  It cannot be avoided.  When the kingdom of God shows up, the kingdom of this world is shaken.  When greed, pride, selfishness, and deceit is confronted with generosity, humility, sacrificial love, and truth there is a collision that is certain and completely unavoidable.  To think that those two competing kingdoms can coexist without producing some major friction and fallout is extremely naive. 

Like Jesus, the church does not have to purpose to cause waves.  We do not have to jump on a soap box in order to get the world to notice us.  We should never say or do anything for the simple reason of trying to stir up something.  At the same time, we should never cower or compromise in order to pacify any person or entity.  Jesus was simply who He was.  When the church determines to be who they are suppose to be, darkness will sit up and take notice. Forces will collide. Boats will be rocked. Offenses will come.  Speaking and living the truth isn't comfortable.  It comes with great risk.  Attempting to keep the peace is not the goal of the church.  Being the light of the world is what we are here for.  Determining to be that light in a world shrouded in darkness will always produce conflict.  Being that light requires the courage and strength to stand for what's right when it is extremely unpopular. It requires one to speak the truth even when its rejected by most.  It requires one to love when its easier to hate.  

The Pharisees during the days of Jesus failed miserably.  They were more concerned about keeping the Roman government happy then doing what was right.  They determined to be politically correct in order to keep the peace, yet in the end, the Roman government did exactly what they feared the most.  There is a spirit of tolerance that permeates throughout every fiber of our culture. Much like the Pharisees, we are faced with the temptation of compromising, cowering, and shutting up.  The day we give in to that temptation is the day we turn off the light.  I don't know about you, but turning off the light is not something I am ok with.  Political correctness....No thanks!

Who's Your Daddy?

I was looking at a picture taken at a recent family gathering.  In the background of the picture there stood a guy who looked a lot like my dad.  At first I thought perhaps it was an older picture taken when my dad was still alive.  As I studied the picture a little more I realized that it was a current photo.  And either the person who looked like my dad had stolen my clothes or it was me. The truth is that as I look in the mirror each day the man I see staring back at me looks more and more like my dad.  There are even times when I say or do something and immediately I realize I'm more like him than I care to admit.  

I'm not the only one either.  I look at my two brothers and I can see him in them too.  Even my two sisters carry in them things that remind me of daddy.  There's no hiding it, Troy Stone's image is seen in all five of his children.  Even his grandchildren can't escape the reality of resembling him in one way or another.  Whether its appearance, character, attitude, personality, etc. we all carry a piece of him in us.  You may have never met my dad.  And since he's gone on to be with Jesus, you'll have to wait to meet him in eternity.  But if you want to catch a glimpse of what he's like, just spend some time with one of his kids.  Trust me, you'll get to know him a little bit.   

The same holds true of Jesus concerning His Father. God's Son, looks just like Him.  He acts just like Him.  He talks just like Him.  Whereas my siblings and I carry with us a part of my dad, Jesus carries with Him the fullness of His Father.  He is exactly like Him in every possible way.  The DNA of His Father runs through Him and They are so much alike that it is impossible to distinguish One from the Other. Jesus told the disciples that once you've seen Him, you've seen the Father.  He told them that He and the Father were One. Jesus declared that He was in the Father and that the Father was in Him. Jesus is a perfect image of His Father.  No Photoshop is needed to correct anything.  They look identical, act identical, and talk identical.  In Christ there is found no deviation from God's character, nature, personality, or likeness.  God made Himself visible in the person of Jesus.  Want to understand who God is and what He's like?  Take a good hard look at His Son.

Scripture tells us that Jesus is the firstborn of all creation.  It declares that those who believe in Him, He has given them the power to become His sons/daughters.  As such, we are given the task of making this invisible God visible.  Following in the footsteps of Jesus, we are to be acting like Him, talking like Him, and looking like Him.  It should be extremely easy for unbelievers to see in us a pretty good resemblance of who God is.

Do we look like Him?  Do we talk like Him?  Do we love like Him? Are we introducing people to Him or are we repelling them?  I can think of no greater way to honor our heavenly Father than to determine to be like Him. The world should have no problem determining, "who's your daddy?"

Wanna Know God?

They were convinced they knew Him.  They had studied and memorized what He had said.  They knew well the stories about Him and how He had interacted with mankind in the past.  Then He showed up.  This God they thought they knew showed up and they did not recognize Him at all.  As a matter of fact, they were so clueless as to who He was that they were convinced that this Jesus was a messenger of Satan.

Isn't that tragic?  Imagine spending your entire life in pursuit of knowing Him only to find out that all that time and effort was nothing more than an empty pursuit.  Though these religious leaders knew the Law and all that the ancient prophets had spoken, they did not truly know God.  If we are not careful, we too can spend our lifetime thinking we know Him when in reality we have no clue as to who He is.

We can jump through all the hoops that religion requires of us and when its all said and done we've done nothing but become great hoop jumpers.  Religious demands commonly do little more than offer us a false sense of connecting with God.  It's much like a Facebook approach to knowing God.  Like a Facebook friend, we scroll through His profile, pics, and posts, but in the end we do not truly know Him.  We are not at all acquainted with His heart, His nature, or His passions.  We are left to make judgments about Him that don't correctly represent Him at all.  Often, this leads to a description of God that looks a lot like us because it makes us feel much better about ourselves.  After all who wants to think that the motives of their heart are not at all like His? Does anyone really want to believe that they are acting more like a son of hell than a son of God?

Much like the religious leaders of Jesus' day, when we don't truly know Him, we often make the same mistakes they made.  We blame things on God that He didn't do.  We characterize the acts of God as satanically generated and vice versa.  In doing so, we perpetrate a great deception convincing many that we know God and this is what He's like.  I wonder if God ever wishes that if we aren't gonna take the time to really get to know Him if we would just "hold our peace" (that's King James for shut up) in regards to declaring who He is?

Not only did the religious leaders not know God, they had no desire to really know Him.  When confronted with the truth of who He was, they rejected that truth because He didn't fit in the box they had built for Him. They had this idea of what they wanted God to be like and when He wasn't like that they wanted nothing to do with Him.  They had an image of God that was not at all consistent with who He was.  Scripture tells us that Jesus is the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15).  God wanted, and still wants, mankind to know Him.  He sent Jesus to give us a visual image of who He is. In Christ was and is the fullness of God (Colossians 2:9).  Jesus isn't just like God, He is God.  Truly knowing God is dependent on knowing Jesus.  When our pursuit of God detours around the person of Jesus, just like those 1st century religious leaders, our knowledge of God will be completely skewed.  An accurate assessment of who God is can only be obtained through knowing Jesus.  Nobody comes to the Father except through Jesus (John 14:6).  It is this Jesus who introduces us to God.  Wanna know God?  It starts and ends with knowing Jesus! 

Wow!

Wow!  That's about it.  I don't know what else to say when I look at the images in Oklahoma and Texas in the aftermath of the tornadoes that hit this area.  I mean what do you say?  I was getting my oil changed in the car when I first saw the images.  I sat there in the lobby with nothing to say.  For those who know me, understand how major it is for me to have nothing to say.  Nevertheless, there I sat speechless. I looked around the room and there were a couple of other people completely out of touch with the images on the screen.  They sat there eyes glued to their phones, oblivious to the reality of the plight of our neighbors to the north.  I thought to myself how many of us will react exactly that same way. 

Personally, I couldn't help but think of those who were trapped in the rubble, those dead in the rubble, those who lost everything, those who lost friends and family.  I thought to myself what would I do or what would I say if I were there at that moment.  How do you help someone navigate through the aftermath of something tragic like this?  I don't really have the answer to that.

What I do know though is that I can do something.  Perhaps I can't be right there, right now, but there is something I can do.  There is something we all can do.  Sure, we can sit back and thank God that it was not us and go back to life as normal, or we can engage in helping someone somehow walk through this horror.  I choose the latter!

There are multiple places where you can donate.  Maybe you can even be one of those who can be there right now with a set of hands and feet to help them.  Maybe you can just be a shoulder to cry one.  Whatever the case, everyone of us can do something to help these families walk through the aftermath of these horrible storms.

This morning I discovered that a friend of mine lost his house.  It's gone.  I thought to myself, what would I do if that was my brother, or my sister?  I certainly wouldn't call them up and just let them know I would be praying for them.  Here's what I would do, I would do whatever I could to lend a hand.  I would give of myself, my resources, and whatever else I could to help them get back on their feet.  

I can't build this friend another house.  But I can get off my tail-end and do something.  So, I choose to do something.  As I finish typing my thoughts, I'm on my way to the post office, to mail him some gift cards.  It won't stop there, but its the start.  I can't build him a new home, but I can be a friend.  I can choose to truly love and not pretend I do.  There are thousands affected and I wish I could help them all.  I'll start with just one though and we'll see where we go from there.

I want to challenge you to do something.  If we all did a little, then we would collectively do a lot.  If you don't know were to start, then go to our church's website at www.westlakefellowship.org and make a donation for tornado relief.  You can help me, help one family get back on their feet!  Let's change the world one life at a time!!! 

La-Z-Boy Christianity....That's The Life For Me!

I was exhausted.  I felt like doing absolutely nothing.  I needed to just sit on the couch and rest.  I felt as if I had finished up a week of hard physical labor and needed to refresh and re-energize before I could function at normal level again.  How did I get here?  It was a tough week.  Not, physically but emotionally.  My 10 year old had to be put under via IV sedation in order to have oral surgery done this week.  I was ok, until about 4 days out, but as that day approached, the anxiety increased.  On the outside, I wore a mask that communicated all was good.  On the inside however it was a little different story.

I know, thousands of kids undergo procedures like this everyday, not to mention others who face much more difficult procedures.  I reminded myself of that several times a day, but it had no affect on my anxiety level.  I'll let you in on a little secret.  I've discovered over the years that I struggle sometimes with control.  Ok, perhaps that's an understatement.  Hello, my name is Tim and I'm a control-a-holic.  Man, it feels good to get that off my chest!  I really struggle sometimes to trust others, including God.  I'm good as long as I have the reins.  I trust myself.  I'm a problem solver, and I like to fix things.  The problem arises when I can't fix the problem and I have to turn it over to someone else.

So, here I was, Super Fix-It Man, unable to fix what ailed my 10 year old.  I had to sit in a waiting room and do nothing.  Nothing but worry!  I read a few pages of a book, then I would set it down and stress a little.  I would check my phone for messages, then worry a little more.  I would read a couple more pages of the book, then allow the anxiety to grow a little more.  I had made a decision several days prior that I would shoulder the weight of this whole thing.  I would take all the worry, stress, and anxiety for this and place it squarely on my shoulders.  Is it any wonder why on the day after I found myself unable to lift myself off the couch?  After all, the previous few days I had carried the weight of my world.  Who wouldn't need a day of rest.

All I know is that on this day of rest, I felt a bit justified in resting.  I had been through an emotional battle and just needed to veg out for a bit.  That's what we believers do isn't it?  We face those fiery darts that the enemy throws our way.  We fight the good fight of faith and then we sit down and take a breather.  We lick our wounds and pat ourselves on the back for getting through the battle. We thank God for helping us win the victory. 

Unfortunately, I think we've been duped into thinking that's the model for Christian living.  The day following my "day of rest", God would set me straight.  He let me know that the reason for my exhaustion was not the result of fighting the fight of faith.  On the contrary, I had spent the week overcome with fear and unbelief.  Sure, I prayed, but my prayers were more filled with hope that He would take care of my boy instead of knowing that He would.  My approach was anything but faith.  Faith, real faith, is characterized by resting before the battle, in the battle, and after the battle.  Real faith would have been choosing to kick back and relax on Monday-Friday, not just the day after.  It takes no faith to trust God once He's brought you through the battle. Authentic faith shows up when you see the battle up ahead and it is further revealed smack dab in the middle of the fight.  Real faith requires us to trust the fact He's got this thing covered even before the battle begins.

Paul, tells us in Ephesians that we are seated with Him in heavenly places.  Seated!  Sitting down with Him!  You sit down when the work is done.  This "seated" position is a place of rest.  It's resting in the completed work of Christ.  It's "La-Z-Boy" Christianity and yes, it's the way He wants us to approach this journey.  No, I'm not saying we are to be lazy slugs who do nothing because Scripture clearly lays out our responsibilities as followers of Christ.  But our first step in living this life to its fullest is learning how to truly rest in Him. It is to see ourselves spiritually reclining in a position of rest.  Think about this for a minute.  When you sit down in a chair, then your weight is transferred completely to that chair.  In the same way when we choose to rest in Christ, the weight that we carry is transferred to Him.  He invited us to do just that when He said "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For My yoke is easy and My burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30).  Wait a second, did He say His yoke was easy?  YES HE DID!  That's the way he longs for us to do life.  That takes real faith though.  It requires confidence in Him.  It requires us to relinquish control and to completely trust Him.

I'm wondering just how different my Friday would have been last week had I chosen to rest prior to the battle instead of after it?  I think God wants us to understand that His "rest" is not one that is needed at the point of exhaustion but one that is designed for keeping us from reaching that point. So, as to avoid reaching that point of exhaustion, you'll have to excuse me because I need to hop into my "La-Z-Boy."  Seriously, I'm determined to get this "La-Z-Boy" Christian thing right!

Evaluating The Price Of Freedom

It was white with blue interior.  It had blue pinstripes running down the side with the words CAMARO spelled out on the bottom of the door.  Man, I loved that car.  It was a 1981 Camaro Berlinetta.  I drove it until it just wouldn’t drive no more.  For years I dreamed of restoring it, but never had the time or the money to do so.  Regularly, people would stop by and offer money for this machine that sat in the driveway.  Nobody ever offered enough.  I mean, sure they offered more than what its Blue Book value was, but they never could offer what this car was worth to me.  It was the first car I bought myself.  I worked hard for this sports car.  I remember well the jobs I worked and the sweat I spilled in order to pay this car off.  Nobody, and I mean nobody, could truly understand the price I paid for that car and what it was worth to me.  The investment I made in this car went far beyond the monthly payments I mailed in and the total amount of money I paid for it.  Over the course of four years, I invested much of my life working and sweating to pay that car off.   

While someone might drive by and see a rust bucket sitting in the driveway worth a few hundred dollars, they failed to see the real price paid for that rust bucket.  Yes, I know that the resale value of a car goes down with age, but that doesn’t change its original worth or the high price that was once paid for it.  

You may be thinking as you read this I must be in a bit of a melancholy mood this morning as I write.  Actually, that’s not true. Over the course of the last few months, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking.  I’ve been thinking of our culture and the world we live in.  I’ve been watching the dialog, the debates, and the rhetoric.  I’ve been watching as I see a polarization between differing ideologies.  I’ve been observing the growing tensions between this group and that group.  I’ve found myself scratching my head trying to figure out what in the world is going on.  

So, what does all this have to do with my Camaro?  Stay with me, and I think I can tie it all in.  In the days of the early church, Paul was trying to explain God’s free gift of grace to Roman believers.  In his letter to them he writes, “What shall we say then?  Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?” (Romans 6:1-2 NKJV).  Paul is making a point, because, many of them didn’t get it.  Sure, they had been given an incredible gift from God that didn’t cost them anything, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t come without a price.  As believers, when we fail to recognize and value the enormous price that was paid for our salvation, it leads to a very immature approach to Christian living.  When we do that, like those early believers in Rome, we have a cheap view of grace that affords us an excuse to continue living life as usual instead of truly liberated which is what grace has made available for us.  Sure, salvation is free to us, but Jesus paid a hefty price in order to secure it for us.  If the first century church struggled with this concept, rest assured those of us that are 2000 years removed from the crucifixion are going to struggle with it as well.  Is it any wonder why Jesus instructed the disciples to remember Him every time they sat down and broke bread together?  Could it be that Jesus understood, if we fail to realize that the freedom He secured for us came at such a hefty price, that we would not value that freedom appropriately?  I think He understood that very well.  I also think He knew that this incorrect valuation of that freedom would result in living far below the quality of life that freedom was designed to afford us.  He also understood that this would prevent us from being thankful for what we’ve been given and catapult us into an entitlement paradigm where we would become more focused on our rights than our responsibilities.

I love my country.  I love the fact that I live in the land of the free and the home of the brave.  I love freedom.  I didn’t do anything to warrant be born here.  I’ve done nothing to earn my freedom, purchase it, or secure it.  I’m free because somebody else did all that for me.  Somebody spilled their blood for my freedom.  Somebody grew up without a dad or a mom or a husband or a brother or a sister so that I could have freedom.  Today there are those who are serving in the military who are consistently away from their families for long periods of time, so that I can stay at home with mine.  It’s extremely easy for me and everybody else who has been blessed with so much to lose sight of just how pricey our freedom was and is.  

Many years ago, a group of men and women risked everything to come to this land.  They had no guarantees.  They wanted freedom so bad they were willing to pay whatever price was required to get it.  They were willing to leave everything behind and replace it with uncertainty, danger, and enormous risk all for the chance of freedom.  Perhaps they were only thinking of themselves, but somehow I think it was more than that.  I think that just maybe they were thinking of their children and their children’s children.  I know that every day I think of what life is going to be like for my children in 25 or 30 years.  Again, it’s easy for us a couple centuries later to read about what they did without seeing the true value in what they did and the extreme price they paid.

Today we have a generation where many people walk through life with absolutely no idea of what the price tag of freedom is.  They enjoy its benefits but fail to recognize its cost.  They do not care about nor appreciate the sacrifices of former generations that have laid freedom in their lap.  We should not think it strange when their actions are consistent with that truth.  Because that freedom has cost them nothing, then the valuation of that freedom has become tainted.  As a result, they do not value this freedom as something sacred, or worth preserving.  If we’ve made a mistake it has been that we have failed to communicate that what they have been given wasn’t free at all.  We’ve failed to communicate to them that what is free to them cost somebody else something very valuable.  While we kick back in our comfortable living rooms, watching our big screen TVs, in our air conditioned houses, we have failed to follow the model that Jesus gave the disciples to constantly remember the enormous price that was paid for our freedom. Every opportunity we get we need to dialog about that.  We need to communicate that to our children and our children’s children.  We need to raise up a generation of young people who have thankful hearts rather than a sense of entitlement.  

Have I mentioned how much I loved my Camaro?  Well, I no longer have my Camaro.  I parted with it after many years.  And no, I did not get anywhere near what it was worth to me. Sure, it had some rust on it and needed a lot of work, but that didn’t change the price I paid for it.  Like my Camaro, America has some huge negatives.  Rust, if you will.  Greed, division, class warfare, controlling spirits, corruption, selfishness, etc.  Still with all that rust, it doesn’t change the price that was paid for it. 

Making Sense Of It All

I was glued to the television screen when the news started pouring out of Connecticut last week. My emotions were like a roller-coaster swinging back and forth between grief, anger, sorrow, and outrage.  In the middle of it all there were also moments when I just felt completely numb.  Like  many others, I've been left with so many questions.  Why?  Why would anyone do this?  How could anyone be this evil?  How could anyone murder little innocent children? Who's to blame?  What's to blame?  Can we make any sense of it all?

Almost instantly, some individuals felt it necessary to use this tragic event to make a political statement regarding their views on gun control.  I thought to myself, really?  Twenty-seven people are dead, and before their identities are even certain, some felt it necessary to jump on a soap box.  I don't care where you stand in regards to gun control, it is complete and utter disrespect and a grave dishonor, to those who lost their lives and the loved one's left behind, to use this tragedy for political leverage.  Perhaps, before we jump on a political soapbox, we should step back a bit and remember that parents will be burying their children this week.  They'll be burying their elementary aged children!  Siblings will grow up without their brothers and sisters.  Grandparents will have one less grandchild to hug.  Aunts, uncles, and cousins will have to navigate through the heartbreak as well.  Husbands will bury their wives. Students will bury their teachers and principal.  Students and parents alike will be faced with the horror of being separated once school reopens.  Some children will return to school without their best friends.  Some children will never be able to forget the sounds, images, and horror of that tragic day.  I'll save my views on gun control for another time and another place as I refuse to dishonor all of those affected by this tragic event by adding to the political banter that in the end does nothing for those families in Newtown Connecticut.

I will, however, try to bring some perspective to all of this madness. Some struggle with the idea that God would ever allow something like this to happen.  Especially, to little innocent children. I'm sure the same questions arose in the days of Moses when Pharaoh set out to kill all the little Hebrew babies.  Again, when Jesus was born and the King sought to kill all the babies 2 years and under.  I'm sure the Jewish moms and dads struggled with the same question as they watched their children suffer and die in the extermination camps during Hitler's time.  Every attempt at genocide, murder, kidnapping, or terror involving little ones, is faced with this very question.  How could a loving God ever allow something like this to happen to little children?

My journey with God is a never ending journey of discovery, therefore I would never pretend to know and understand everything about Him.  That being said, there are definitely some things I do know about God.  For instance, I know we do not have to wonder where God stands regarding the horror that took place in Newtown.  God hates hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, and feet that are swift in running to evil (Proverbs 6:17-18).  As disgusted as we are, rest assured God is even more so.  In the same way, as precious as little children are to us, they are even more precious to our Heavenly Father.  Also, in that moment of horror, when evil walked into that school, God was there with those innocent little ones.  No legislation or school policy can force God to fall short of fulfilling His promise to never leave us (Hebrews 13:5).

I know what you're thinking.  So, if God was there with those children, then why didn't He stop that man?  I wish I had a definite answer to that, but I don't.  Again, there are some things I do know that I think can help us navigate through this.  God loves humanity.  His perfect love for us grants us a free will.  That freedom is a wonderful thing but it does come with some huge risks.  Man, whom God loves so very much, has complete freedom to not love Him back.  Each and every one of us has the freedom to follow hard after God or to completely reject Him.  That same freedom grants man the freedom to do good or to do evil. We have the freedom to love others or to think of nobody but ourselves.  From what I understand of the tragedy in CT, there were some teachers and staff of Sandy Hook elementary that gave their lives to protect those children.  They chose to think of others.  As a matter of fact, every teacher in that school, who hid children, got them out of the building, and sheltered them from harm, were individuals who used their freedom to do good.  As a result, more children were saved than were lost.  In saying that, I in no way want to diminish the tragic loss of little innocent children.  If one child was lost, that's too many.  I just want to make the point, that although one individual insists on choosing evil, he/she is no match for those who choose good.  Love wins!  Love always wins!!!  That shooter chose to do evil and in doing so, took the lives of 26 other people.  Those teachers and staff of Sandy Hook Elementary School chose to risk their lives to protect the innocent little children and as a result hundreds were saved. 

While many will sit around and debate issues that are irrelevant, the real issue is that evil exists on this planet.  As long as fallen man is on this planet, evil will exist here.  We will never be able to control the decisions that others choose to make with their lives.  There will always be those who choose evil.  That has always been the case and will always be the case.  At the same time, there will always be those who determine to choose good.  Yes, there will always be those who choose to take the lives of others, but at the same time, there will always be those who are willing to lay down their lives for others. Evil is a powerful force, but it is no match for those who choose what is good and right.  Thank God for teachers, principals, policemen, firemen, military, moms, dads, grandparents, and everyone else who chooses good. Let's also be thankful for a God who is the ultimate Good!  A God who comforts those who mourn.  A God who hurts when we hurt.  A God who heals our wounds and puts our broken hearts back together.  A God who embraces each of those little ones in His arms. A God who is perfectly just and is in charge of upholding eternal justice.  A God who set the standard for love by laying down His life for all of humanity.  Love wins! Love always wins!!!