I had a different post planned for today. It was going to be about death. You can call that interesting or ironic or whatever, but that post will be for another day.
I've been in the office since 7am and for almost the entire day, I've been checking news sites, Twitter, and Facebook to get updates on the developing events regarding the shooting in Aurora, CO. For the past several hours I've been watching a live stream of the NBC news broadcast in Colorado that has been continuously covering the events following the horrific shooting.
As I've sat at my desk today, I've done a lot of thinking.
Things have popped up on Twitter, Facebook and other sites calling for gun control. Numerous people sending out good thoughts and prayers. Other sites reposting old articles about where God is in the midst of tragedy. And I sat here and thought to myself, "What do I, as a Christian, do in a situation like this?"
I've asked myself questions like this before. When Columbine happened. When 9/11 happened. When Virginia Tech happened.
Situations like this are really hard. People ask a lot of questions. They want to know why. They want to know where God was in the midst of all this pain and tragedy. They want to know why, if God is a good God, would He allow something like this to happen.
I've thought long and hard about these questions and my answers come from what Scripture says, which I believe is truth.
Why do horrible things like this happen? Because we are a sinful, broken people in need of a Savior.
Where was God in the midst of all this pain and tragedy? Right where He's always been, with us, wrapping His arms around us, His heart breaking at the fallenness of the pinnacle of His creation.
Why, if God is a good God, would He allow something like this to happen? Because, for better or for worse, He has given us the right to choose. He has given us free will. He didn't create us to be robots. And ultimately, when you give someone the right to choose, not everyone is going to choose what is right. Some people will choose things that bring pain to others, without thinking of the consequences.
My heart breaks when I think about the depravity of the human soul. It breaks when I think that we were created for so much more than this. We were created for holiness, for perfection, for complete and wonderful union with Christ. And yet, we live in a fallen world. And so we must deal with the results of that fallenness, that brokenness, that sin.
Our God knows what He is doing. Gun control isn't the answer. The answer is a radical change in the hearts and lives of every broken sinner in this world.
Continue to pray for the families who have lost loved ones and those who are still in the hospital receiving care. And pray that we, as a community of people who love the Lord -- regardless of your particular denomination -- would come together to show this country just where our God is in light of this horrific event.