In Tragedy...Hope was Born

We don't have TV or radio but we have been watching the tragedy in Connecticut unfold on CNN.com.  As many across the country, I have sat in horror as I read the stories of the events of last Friday's shooting.  I have wondered what hurt...what pain must that young man have been in to give himself over to such evil?  I have tried to imagine what those families...that community must be experiencing at the loss of so much.

And I have thought to myself...

It's too much...

The hurt...the pain...the depravity of sin...it's too much...

The children...the families...the loss...it's too much...

Our hearts break...it's too much...

But I was reminded this morning of another day of tragedy...children slaughtered...families mourning...evil running loose...

Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, was in a furious rage, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time which he had ascertained from the wise men.  Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah:

"A voice was heard in Ramah,

wailing and loud lamentation,

Rachel weeping for her children;

she refused to be consoled,

because they were no more."

Matthew 2:16-18

It was in this scene...

The anger of a mad man satisfied with the blood of children...

Families weeping and mourning that their children are no more...

It was in this scene of tragedy that HOPE was born...

A baby...the Savior of all mankind...

HOPE...

I pray that in the families...in the Newtown community...in our country...this tragedy will also give birth to HOPE...a hope for restoration...a hope for heaven...a hope for JESUS.

I pray that as a country, we would not hear the stories and see the pictures without it igniting in us a desire to fight HARD for TRUTH.  That we would have a renewed strength to pursue JESUS through the ugliness of a fallen world.

We all know of situations where hurt and pain are winning...marriages that are wrestling for life...relationships that are in ruins...children that are suffering at poverty's hand...loss...hurt...pain...

Even this week, I confess to feeling overwhelmed.  The odds are stacked against us...  The system seems broken...  The vision feels a long way off...

But here's the truth...  We can't afford to be overwhelmed...  We can't afford to sit back and wait for it to get easier...

You see...evil doesn't take a break...evil doesn't grow complacent...

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.

Ephesians 6:12

So tonight, as I look into the faces of the lives lost in Connecticut, I feel a renewed strength to fight...

To fight for JOY in all things...

To will my heart to be VULNERABLE to embrace others pain...

To CHALLENGE a broken system...

To pursue MERCY...


To LOVE deeply...

Because I serve the God who gives birth to HOPE in the face of tragedy...

(and tonight...I hugged my kids a little tighter)