Over the past few days I have been thinking a lot about the shooting that took place at the Dark Night premiere in Aurora, Colorado. 12 dead....58 wounded....lives forever changed. My heart aches. I grieve with the families and friends who lost a loved one...I grieve with the injured and traumatized....and I grieve for the heart of the 24 year old boy named James Holmes who came to a point in his life where doing something like this became an option. I know this is not a popular opinion. He's a murder....a monster, as people have been saying.... yet I can't help but just see him as a person...a person who committed a horrible crime....but none the less a person.... And I can't help but wonder what happen in his life to bring him to this point. Was there not a single person in his life with whom he could confide.....a single person who he could share some of his burden with....someone to talk him down from edge? I know nothing about the mentality of a mass murder, but as someone who has a hard time sharing my inner struggles with people, I can't help but wonder if things would have been different if someone...anyone...just kept trying to reach him....to break down his walls...to just love him. I think that's one of the greatest challenges I'll take away from this tragedy....to learn to be that ONE person for people.
In fact I think that's part of what God calls us to do as Christians....to love people with the uncontrollable love of the father. Too often we just care about people to the point that we can make them into who we think they ought to be, but I think God's love is deeper than that. It's a love that's not about us and our comfort but rather a reflection and an overflowing of the love we received on the cross. We like to compare our sins...to think that my little lie makes me better than you who cheated on your husband. But I don't think that's how God sees it. We are ALL sinners....ALL in desperate need of Him....and ALL lucky enough to be loved by the ONE person who can make us right with Himself! We don't earn His love....we certainly don't deserve it...and yet He still loves us and gave His son for us. And it's out of the overflow of this love that we can now love others...being the ONE...and pointing to the ONE who can change everything for them. That's who I want to be.....ONE who reflects the ONE....everyday...in all I do...with everyone!
No comments:
Post a Comment