Another mass shooting. Another round of hand ringing. No more solutions.
There are the empty promises. A governor who swears they are doing more for “mental health”… without offering any proof.
Another week of needless death. Another week of people thinking violence is their only option in solving problems. Another week of no other options.
Silence.
We are destroying a generation with hopelessness and helplessness.
We are governed by fear in this country and seem to have simply resigned ourselves to it.
As believers in America, how have we resigned ourselves to these outcomes? How have we let our eyes drift from Jesus and his heart to a place where we live in fear and believe violence to be a legitimate answer? How do we turn away from those who are hurting and ignore the possible rage building in them? How have we lost faith and embraced fear?
This is my lament. This is my sorrow. This is the grief I currently carry.
There is a passage from Dane Ortlund’s book, Gentle and Lowly, that calls to me and I would pray calls to you.
If Jeremiah 31:10 — “my heart yearns for him” — if those words were to get dressed in flesh, what might those words look like?
We need not wonder. It looks like a Middle Eastern carpenter restoring men’s and women’s dignity and humanity and health and conscience through healings and exorcisms and teaching and hugging and forgiving.
We have lost the way of Jesus and have allowed our culture to dictate fear into our hearts. Let us return to the way of Christ.
Apprentice 2 Jesus 