A Spiritual Perspective on the Oregon shooting

Our hearts are broken with the family and friends of all 10 who died at Umpqua Community College today.  I appreciate this picture (above) because it depicts just how we should respond in a time like this.  Embracing those who hurt.  Nobody appears to be talking.  Just shoulder-to-shoulder brokeness.  Friends coming alongside friends.  I'm not sure that there are words to say to the families and friends at this moment, but to just be sad with them.  I cannot imagine how much this hurts.  My prayers are with you...

This tragedy is another glimpse of just how broken mankind is.  Along with the broken hearted are the angry and the indifferent.  Almost everybody has an opinion as to why these things happen.  A lot of people will rally together and campaign against something.

President Obama and millions of Americans are outraged at Congress and the lack of gun control laws.  Christians are angry that people hate them.  Others use this time to preach the old addage, "guns don't kill people; people kill people."  All the while our adversaries overseas mock our disunity.

So what is at the root of all this madness?  And what is the solution?  Is saying the "brokeness of mankind" or "the fall" too simplistic?  It is true that we are broken as a result of the fall, but there is more to it than that.  

I believe the gunman is not the enemy; rather, he is a victim of the enemy.  Whether the devil, demons, his flesh or the worldly video shoot-em-up games taught him to kill is irrelevant.  I'll lump all those together and call it the enemy of God.  He was a victim of the enemy, but not the enemy.  He submitted to a message that was not from God; namely, kill people.

If guns are outlawed, will murders by guns disappear?  No.  The killing of innocent unarmed people is the symptom of the disease of deception; specifically, believing a lie.  What was the lie in this case?  Answer: that it was okay to shoot people.

The hope of the world is not in gun control or even banning the stupid shoot-em-up games that teach our kids to kill.  The hope of the world is in Jesus Christ.  Our hope is not in the police or the military, even though we love them and gladly pay our taxes and send them care packages when they deploy.  Our hope is in the redemptive and restorative work of Jesus Christ.  Our hope is not in anything this world can offer. Our hope is in the Gospel.

We all choose evil and offensive things on a daily basis.  But God has not left us alone and provides ways to uproot and expose evil in our lives.  He set us free so that we could walk in freedom.  Every murder who ever lived started out with a secret.  That secret then manifested into anger, rage, malice and eventually snowballed into physical murder.  All sin starts with a secret. 

This is exactly what a small group is all about; that is, confession of sin every day all day for the purpose of being renewed in the image of Christ.  The evil thoughts will come; that is no surprise.  The key is exposing every evil thought as fast as possible.  Spiritual victory is about taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.  It's about renouncing those lies in our lives.  It's about doing life with others and not hiding behind some false Instagram image of yourself.

Let us come together and pray for those who mourn tonight.  For the friends and family I pray that the strong believers come alongside those who mourn and allow God to love them, show grace to them, through them.  May God be free to be quick to listen and slow to speak through the believers who will come to their comfort.  May we all put our hope in Jesus Christ.

Bless you brothers and sisters.