It was with horror, but also with a terrible sense of deja vu, I followed the events which played out this last week in Uvalde, TX. Another senseless shooting, this time leaving 19 children and 2 adults dead.
These events are becoming so commonplace it’s hard to not become callused and just turn the page or flip the channel. Yet, when children are involved like this, even the most hardened of us get a gut check. In despair, we cry out, “Why did God let this happen?”
That’s the wrong question, however. What we should be asking is, “Why did we let this happen?”
As my friend, Mark Sullivan, pointed out in a Facebook post last week, “The heavens belong to the Lord, but he has given the earth to all humanity.” (Psalm 115:16 NLT). God put us in charge, “putting all things under [our] authority.” (Psalm 8:6).
This is our mess, our fault, not God’s. What happened in Texas, in Buffalo, what’s happening in Ukraine, and all the unnumbered senseless tragedies which have occurred throughout Earth’s chaotic history, are a direct result of humanity’s rejection of God’s authority and mercy.
What happened in Texas was not an act of judgment by God. It was an evil act by a terribly disturbed young man, a product of our messed up society.
So, what should be our response to such senseless acts?
Yes, we need to pass laws that will make something like this less likely to occur, but no law will prevent every act of violence, not so long as humanity remains in open rebellion against God and His law.
So what is our responsibility? Jesus gives us the answer in John 13:34, where He commands us to “Love each other.”
I know that seems simplistic, but sometimes the simple things are the only things that work. We must love each other, love our children, love our elderly parents, love the immigrant, love the person struggling with mental health problems, love even our enemies. And we must “not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.” (1 John 3:18 NIV).
Events like what occurred in Texas this last week should be a call to action for us, a call for us to share God’s love with all those we meet, so they too can find hope at the foot of the Cross. Although laws can help curb the violence, it is only God’s love lived out in our lives which can bring it to an end.
Blaming God when tragedy strikes is a waste of time. We did this! Let’s take responsibility, confess our guilt, and then get out there and do what God put us on this earth to do – Love each other!