Reflecting on a Tragedy

Words cannot even begin to express the heartbreak that is gripping our country right now.  As I read the news report today, I broke down.  I shed tears for the families who dropped their innocent children off at school like it was just another day and then had to scramble to the school in hopes that one of their kids was not one of the twenty who were shot.  I cannot even imagine the heartache those families are going through right now as I type this.  I'm sure their houses are decorated for Christmas and they have their presents bought for the children that will never receive them. 
I was at the gym this evening and the news coverage was on several of the televisions.  As I was working out, I watched the news report and read the words on the screen because the sound was off.  A man was being interviewed about his assessment of the shooter.  He talked about how the shooter had a learning disability and probably grew up very frustrated and eventually exploded on this day.  I can see where this is going.  So-called experts are going to try to spin this where the shooter was not totally at fault in all of this.  He had issues and because those issues may have never been properly addressed in his life, the volcano erupted. 
At times like this, we need to call a spade a spade.  The man was evil.  Period.  This is not judgmental or intolerant.  It is the truth.  But, if we are going to call him evil, we need to call ourselves evil as well because that is just what we are.  We are all evil from birth.  David says in Psalm 51:5, "Surely I was sinful from birth..."  We need to start realizing the problem with humanity, we are evil from birth.  There is a nature about us that wants to do what we want to do at the expense of everyone else.  We have a propensity for things like what happened today.  We can look at this man and say we would never do anything like that, but how do we know that?  How do we know that we would never lose it one day?  Left to our own devices, we don't know for certain that we would never do that. 
But, then there is grace.  At times like this, people want to blame God for this.  He is supposed to save us all from every tragedy that could be possible because He is all knowing and powerful.  Isn't that what the Bible says?  Jesus told his disciples that in this world we would have trouble.  Paul writes to the Romans in Romans 8:22, "We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time."  We live in a fallen, broken world.  The only cure for it is Jesus.  The only cure for propensity for evil is Jesus.  The only cure for broken hearts in the midst of tragedy like this is Jesus.  There is no other cure.  We think that if we medicate the problem it will go away, but all that does is mask the problem.  It's like sticking a cork on an erupting volcano, eventually it's going to blow it's top.  We need a new life in Jesus.  Why do you think Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3 that we must be born again?  We have to leave behind our old life of doing things our way and embrace the life that Jesus offers.  Paul says in II Corinthians 5:17, "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone and the new has come." 
So, this shooter gave in to his evil desires.  He chose to do things his way and conquer his world the way he wanted to.  He wanted to be the king of his universe.  I'm sure there were plenty of people in his life that tried to help him, but imperfect people trying to solve a problem perfectly is like the blind leading the blind.  This was a man in need of a Savior.  This was a man in need of a new life.  This was a man who needed to be changed in a drastic way with the radical love of Jesus and this is the only way our world will get better. 

What does he mean to you?

Recently I received an email update on what is going on within my denomination.  It focused mainly on our churches in Gautemala, Dominican Republic, Mexico, and Columbia.  It showed statistics from this past year of the growth of these churches in these areas.  Every area showed growth!  This is was definitely a moment to praise God.  Then it showed the stats of the churches in America within this denomination.  It showed -2.5% growth.  If you did not catch what that means, it means that the American churches declined by two and a half percent. 
After I read these stats, I did not get depressed about it.  They got me thinking.  Why are these churches in these other countries growing and the churches in America are not?  After all, we were the birth mother of these other churches.  If it were not for the work of American missionaries, there would be no churches there.  I think the reason is that Jesus means so much more to them than he does to us.  Not to say that Jesus means nothing to us or our churches.  But, if Jesus meant as much as we think he does, wouldn't we be pouring everything we have into the work of the kingdom?  We always joke that 10% of the people in our churches do all of the work, but why is that?  Why is that a reality all across the board?  That is not what Scripture teaches us about the way the church should function.  Paul teaches us that every part is held together for the good of the whole.  The spiritual gifts that are given to us are used for the mutual building up of each other within the church so that we can be the most effective for the kingdom of God. 
The churches down in these countries are working together for the kingdom of God because the King means everything to them.  This is the same in other countries as well that do not have free access to Jesus.  They cherish one page of the Bible because that is all they have of it and they will read it over and over.  We get bored with books like Leviticus and Numbers, but imagine if that was the only book of the Bible that you had?  Would you still get bored with it? 
Christmas is upon us and we start going into panic mode trying to get our Christmas cards out, getting presents for everyone, and parties planned.  But, how much does the reason for Christmas mean to us?  If he meant more to us, then maybe our churches would not be seeing a decline.  I know these stats were only for my denomination, but I think other denominations have similar stats as well.  We need to reevaluate how much Jesus means to us.  We spend more time talking about things that don't matter and pouring energy into the latest program when we should be pouring ourselves out for our King and his kingdom. 
I challenge myself from this day forward to make much of Jesus everyday.  I have been getting distracted by life myself and not putting as much effort into knowing Jesus, but that needs to stop.  I want to follow the example of my brothers and sisters in Latin America.  I want Jesus to mean the most to me.