John 12:35-40
Jesus said, "For a brief time still, the light is among you. Walk by the light you have so darkness doesn't destroy you. If you walk in darkness, you don't know where you're going. As you have the light, believe in the light. Then the light will be within you, and shining through your lives. You'll be children of light."
Jesus said all this, and then went into hiding. All these God-signs he had given them and they still didn't get it, still wouldn't trust him. This proved that the prophet Isaiah was right:
God, who believed what we preached?
Who recognized God's arm, outstretched and ready to act?
First they wouldn't believe, then they couldn't—again, just as Isaiah said:
Their eyes are blinded, their hearts are hardened,
So that they wouldn't see with their eyes and perceive with their hearts,
And turn to me, God, so I could heal them.
Scripture quotations from The Message. © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress, Colorado Springs, CO. All rights reserved.
Like most of you, my husband and I watched as President Obama announced that Osama bin Laden had been killed. It didn’t take long for people to take to the streets and begin to publicly cheer this news. “It’s a great day for the country,” more than one person said. And I get that. I still maintain contact with the families of two NYC firefighters whose lives were snuffed out in the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers. I spoke via Facebook with the wife of one of the firefighters… a mother of three – her youngest born about seven months after the attack. I understand that she and her sons feel vindicated.
At the same time, my husband and I discussed how we have prayed for a different outcome – for God to be able to soften Osama bin Laden’s heart and cause him to surrender… and repent for his atrocities. This did not happen. And truly, I have concluded that there are some people who are so horribly blinded… so firmly in the grip of Satan… that their hearts are hardened beyond redemption. Thankfully, there aren’t many such monsters, but bin Laden may have indeed been one of them. And God may have allowed him to be taken out to put an end to his madness and horrific treatment of others. This still doesn’t give us the right to celebrate his death… or the death of any human being.
We can celebrate that a reign of tyranny is forever changed, though probably not gone. We can celebrate the relief at knowing that this particular terrorist can never threaten us again. But as Christians, we must not let our own hearts become hardened to the point that we delight in revenge. There is no winner here. The death of bin Laden will not bring back a single soul who perished on 9/11 or during bin Laden’s reign of terror. Osama bin Laden’s death did not change the fact that others suffered and died at his hands. Our only hope is to trust God to give us the strength and courage to forgive and move forward. We never forget… but we must walk in the light of forgiveness.
Do you see that failure to forgive is the same as walking in the darkness with the devil? Do you get that vengeance and revenge are God’s to mete out… not ours? We can never understand why God did not snuff out the life of such an evil person as Osama bin Laden a long, long time ago. But the beauty of our faith is that we don’t have to understand… we just have to believe that God is in control, and His ways – hard as they may be for us to stomach sometimes – are always right.
Whether it’s your next-door neighbor with whom you have a grudge over property lines or a bully you wish would come to a bad end… or the death and obliteration of Osama bin Laden… don’t celebrate. The Bible tells us that God grieves when even one of his sheep is lost. He was brokenhearted at the fall of the angel Lucifer, whom we now know as Satan. So I have no doubt that this death has grieved Him, also. Pray that God would use these events to bring others to a realization that we must learn to live in peace and harmony and treat each other better. Ask God to use this particular incident to grant a semblance of peace and resolution to thousands of family members throughout the world… and pray for those who are still following the terroristic practices of Osama bin Laden. But also pray that we would find a way to walk in the light of Christ - with faithful, open hearts that seek His will and trust His plans.
Pray for the families who have been affected directly by terrorists and Al Qaeda. Pray for our nation and for those in other countries. Ask God to keep our hearts softened to His message… and our feet firmly planted in the path of the light of Christ… far, far away from the darkness.
©2011 Debbie Robus
No comments:
Post a Comment