It has been a rough couple of years. There has been a lot that has gone on...Covid, economy issues, inflation...and mass shootings. Some of those things seem to be out of our control. There really isn't much that we can do about Covid. Even with all the vaccines and boosters it seems like you can still get sick. As far as the economy we can pretend that voting for one party or the other might fix things, but in the end the devil is still the devil. The one thing we can do something about is gun violence.
Now before you get all worked up, I am not promoting taking your guns away. Most of the people I know own guns and they have never shot at anyone. As a matter of fact, I walked past a gun just today and I survived...unscathed!
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| Hope this doesn't leave you...triggered! |
The truth is that guns have never killed anyone on purpose. Yes, there are accidental shootings that happen, and they are tragic. But a gun never just jumps up, points itself at someone, and shoots them. That doesn't happen. For most killings there is a person willfully pulling the trigger. That is where the real shame is.
People should know better. We shouldn't be killing...or even want to be killing...each other. Random shootings and mass shootings shouldn't be an option for any rational person. The heart of each person should default to love, not hate. Yet it seems like as a society we have given up on love.
The Bible talks about a more excellent way in 1 Corinthians.
And I will show you a still more excellent way.
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned,1 but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it his not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
To me the answer is simple yet monumentally difficult. We need to fix the heart of the people. We need to replace self with others. We need to replace hate with love.
So every time there is a shooting I will pray. Not for those who are dead but for the hearts of those who are still alive...that they would recognize this madness and hate for what it is and choose a more excellent way.
A very poignant post. Thanks for it.
ReplyDeleteExcellent post. The Gospels can all be summed up in Jesus' command "Love one another..."
ReplyDeleteSt. Paul says we see things "in a mirror dimly." The best way through the confusion is love.
I read once that legislation reflects a society's values, i.e. legislation follows rather than leads cultural change. Changing hearts is better than changing laws. If this is true, then I think it's worth considering if this logic can be applied to the current state of Roe v Wade. Personally, I've yet to hear someone say that this changed law has changed their heart. I imagine gun control laws would evoke a similar reaction. I think Jesus had to state the obvious, "Love one another" because it's probably one of the hardest things humans are asked to do.
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