Broken Lives, Gaping Wounds, and Cries of the Heart

The news reported three dead and 176 injured in the Boston marathon bombing.  But it also left behind broken lives, gaping wounds, and a lot of unanswered questions.  We were all affected in one way or another.

What did we see on Monday?   This action was wrong, very wrong, and we all knew it.  "This is evil," acknowledged our President.  Evil may come in a lot of disguises, but we all recognize it for what it is.

We cried out for the loss of human life and for those who suffered. Why?  Every life is precious, valuable and sacred, because we are not random at all.  We are created.  Our lives have meaning.  And that is why we all asked the same question:  "How could someone do such a thing to innocent people?"  Why, why, why?

And yes,we saw that moral behavior does matter after all.  That is why we are indignant at injustice, shocked by corruption, abhorred by arrogance, grieved over abuse, and horrified by selfishness taken to its logical conclusion, as we saw on Monday.  Ethics are simply principles of right conduct, doing what is good and right just because it is good and right.  Ethical behavior is ingrained on the human heart.  Morals do not limit, but protect us from ourselves, and hold back the forces of depravity.

"A man without ethics is a wild beast loosed upon the world," wrote philosopher Albert Camus.

We have lived for decades now in a world that says there is no right and wrong, there is no good and evil, ethics and morals are considered outmoded, and life has no meaning.   But worldviews are not stagnant, continually flowing from proclaimed belief to resulting behaviors.   From any mindset, there are logical outcomes.

Take away the moral foundation, and there is not freedom, but fury.  All is relative?  There is nothing relative about the evil we have seen with our own eyes.

When people have been fed deceit for so long -- there is no meaning, you are a mistake, there is no hope, life is absurd, nothing matters -- there is something within all of us that has to fight back, because we cannot live with that dissonance.  Without God at the core satisfying who he is, man has to seek meaning, hope, purpose, love and acceptance any way he can.  Desperate people do desperate things.   Hopelessness descends into despair, and violence is the logical path.  Without God at the core, there is only self to be worshiped, and a reckless struggle for power and significance.  Nothing else matters, and no one else can stand in the way. We have seen it throughout history;  we see it almost daily in our news.  A worldview not based on truth does not just lead to another worldview, but to the unspeakable.

The truth is that life is sacred and precious.  You have been created and are greatly loved, not random at all.

The truth is we all recognize there is something wrong with the world.  Our own selfishness promises everything and leaves only emptiness.

The truth is there is hope.   That is why Jesus came, to show us that it doesn't have to be this way.

The truth is that something has been done about hopelessness and despair.  Jesus came to not to judge, but to love the world.  Because He died, deceit and selfishness have lost its grip on me.   I see life through new eyes, I see myself differently, I see others differently.  I am able to love God and love others.  This truth makes all the difference, moving from belief to behavior.

We cannot deny the existence of evil, but we can defy it.  The very first thing that happened after the blasts on Monday were incredible selfless acts of courage, kindness and compassion as virtual strangers chose not to flee, but to help and assist those who were horrendously injured.  "Oh God, help us."  They saw evil.  They responded with good.

God is light
and in Him is no darkness at all.
                   1 John 1.5

Do not be overcome by evil,
but overcome evil with good.
                   Romans 12.21