kingdom

Thoughts and Prayers

Thoughts and Prayers

Frank

It’s easy to be cynical when it doesn’t affect you, when you are separated emotionally by distance. But when it hits close to home perspectives change.

Another day, another school shooting 

Last Friday I was settling in at my desk at work when a cryptic message showed up in my inbox: “All personnel affected by the school shooting in Palmdale are authorized early leave.” Wait! What school shooting? My kids are at school in Palmdale! My wife is teaching in neighboring Lancaster! What’s going on???

I immediately went online to find out what was going on and jump on the phone to call my wife. The shooting was at a local high school, all schools in the area were locked down. Phew, my kids were at nearby elementary and middle schools. My son just made it in the gate as the school locked down. My daughter was met right away at her school’s entrance and corralled to their cafeteria. My wife was busy managing all of her kids as well and couldn’t talk long. The news was slowly trickling out to tell me only one person was shot and the shooter fled. Another relief; maybe it was a personal beef or gang-related. But then another report comes out that someone heard shots at an elementary school a few miles away. The chaos was spreading.

I’ve learned from other similar events that social media is a good way to find out information in real-time. Often students will post updates or other witnesses will report what they’re hearing. Of course you have to be wise and filter the information. One person (with “Antifa” in their name- stirring things up much?) mentioned that his mom worked in the cafeteria and was in critical condition. Others posted that they were students and the media was wrong, 30-40 people were actually shot. People got the community name mixed up with the high school, rumors spread about the other elementary school. And of course, things soon turned political.

Besides the emotional panic I felt over the event itself, my heart was grieved by what I was reading online. “Thoughts and prayers” were followed by posts blasting so-called Christians for not doing anything (I identify myself as Christian, what exactly was I expected to do?). People posted the usual, “it’s too soon to politicize this event” while others were railing both for and against gun-control. The bitterness and vitriol on display was nauseating.

Thoughts and prayers

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Eph 6:12)

“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world.” (2 Cor 10:3-4a)

What I realized reading these posts was that regardless of political ideology or self-identified belief system, in this age of social media and regularly occurring mass shootings, our default position is to demonize opposing viewpoints and to fight with the “weapons of the world”, aka politics. While we wonder what is wrong and what can be done, we turn to media, to politics, to the talking-points that have become ingrained in our cultural consciousness.

“We need more laws!”          “We need more people armed!”
“Bad guy with a gun!”          “Good guy with a gun!”
“You’re wrong!”                    “No, you’re wrong!”
ad nauseam.

It’s easy to offer “thoughts and prayers” in times such as these. It’s dispassionate and somewhat of a lifeline of hope when we otherwise feel helpless. But what are we praying for? I read posts praying for the victims and their families. I read prayers for mercy in the midst of all the violence and hatred in the world today. And I usually look at such sentiments with cynicism, but not that day. I realized that thoughts and prayers are exactly what we need. But not prayers for victims or families. Not prayers for political outcomes favorable to our viewpoints. Not even the liturgical prayer, “Lord, have mercy; kyrie eleison”. A more appropriate prayer is “thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

Our world is ruled by hatred and division. Satan delights with glee when tragedy divides us further. Meanwhile the kingdom of God is breaking-in to our world through “Christ’s ambassadors”, the Church. The only solution, the only solution, to these tragedies is the kingdom of God. As gun-control opponents like to point out, people with hatred in their hearts will find a means to cause harm. So do we just accept that, or do we pray for the reign of Jesus to address the hatred that drives these events in the first place? Australia is often used as the prime example of effective gun-control, yet the same day as this shooting there was a mass shooting in that country. (Only the second in twenty years, but still.) Meanwhile, one person was killed and several others injured in a knife attack in France. Hatred and division still rule in our hearts, laws or no laws.

Thankfully only one person was shot and the suspect quickly apprehended. After an hour of being glued to media online, I was able to take a deep breath and get back to work.  This shooting was no longer “breaking news” and was quickly forgotten. Even locally the shooting was overshadowed by a double homicide the night before and a neighborhood lockdown the following day. This shooting appeared to be over a personal dispute, so didn’t fit the narrative of either side. Just another day with another shooting, and our lives go on.

Yet as I write this, I’m following reports of the mass shooting at Santa Fe High School in Texas. At this time, it is reported between 8 and 10 people have been killed. This follows another shooting in Illinois just two days ago where the shooter was engaged with law enforcement, thankfully preventing further harm. Is the day called “today”? Then there’s probably a shooting at a school somewhere.

“See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.” (Heb 3:12-13)

Thoughts and prayers
Lord, have mercy; Lord, come quickly
Kyrie eleison, maranatha
Not our will, but yours be done
May your kingdom come
Thoughts and prayers

Perspectve

Frank

Yesterday I watched the Senate confirmation of Betsy DeVos for Education Secretary while monitoring reactions on social media. It was interesting to see how either accepting or rejecting this particular Cabinet pick was taken so personally by so many.

Speaking of taking things personally, the same time I was glued to the TV my wife was a thousand miles away helping some of her family make funeral arrangements. The whirlwind of the past couple of days has helped me put all this political debate into its proper perspective.

So far this year, averaging nearly weekly, either someone close to me has passed away or someone close to someone close to me. Three in the past week alone. As hard as this has been, it has been good reminder that our lives are “but a mist” (James 4:14). That while we debate politics online, people in the real world are suffering- physically, emotionally, or spiritually- and our time is limited to do anything about it.

This isn’t meant to diminish what I see are legitimate concerns with what is going on in the United States politically. But I think politics have become a sport- you cheer your side and boo the other, and defend your colors proudly to everyone you meet. It has become a distraction- I get too emotionally wrapped up in the latest headline while there is a homeless person on the nearest street corder begging for bread.

What I fear most about this distraction isn’t just that it keeps our hearts away from the real needs right in front of us but that it also keeps our eyes from heaven, anticipating the return of Jesus.

Jesus told a parable about a ‘rich fool’ who plans to build a storehouse for all his grain so he can take it easy in the future. But he is a fool because that future never comes: “You fool! This very night your life will be demand from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?” (Luke 12:20)

I’m beginning to view politics the same way. We choose who to support based on what we get out of it. But bureaucracy is slow. We won’t see the effect of economic policies enacted now for a couple of years at best. The Department of Education won’t disappear overnight (despite a bill desiring as much) and even if it did, the local school your child goes to won’t just suddenly close. It took a year and a half to craft, debate, and pass a bill for national health care. It took several more months to enact it. We vote for what will benefit us in some future that may never come.

You fools! You vote worrying about your future when your very life may be demanded from you tonight. Or tomorrow. Or in six months.

But what about our children? And their children? These votes aren’t just about us, but their future as well! I understand that, I really do. But it begs the question, in what or in whom are you putting your faith?

“Some of you will say,  ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’ Why you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.’ As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil.” (James 4:13-16)

If it is the Lord’s will. That’s a big if. And for whatever reason, whether you agree with it or not, this administration is God’s will*. (Romans 13:1) So is our faith in God or our government?

*note, I have a post on this passage coming, so don’t get too hung up on defining “God’s will” quite yet

One last thought, as hard as it might be to put into practice the Bible is still true. “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these thing will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matthew 6:33-34)

Don’t worry about what politics is going to do about tomorrow. Do what you can to seek first God’s kingdom today. Today has enough trouble to deal with, we have to trust God for tomorrow.