there is no making sense of it

There are grieving families today. In Redlands, the town just down the freeway from me two young men were murdered in a shooting. In Arizona a mentally ill young man shot and killed six people and seriously wounded several others. I think our normal reaction is to try to make sense of these tragedies and part of that is assigning blame. Already there are people blaming gun lobbies and immigration policy and disagreeable rhetoric from leaders and media.
People are franticly looking for a cause or blame is a scramble for safety. If only it really were the fault of just one or two things that kids are murdering kids. We could just blot this out and be done with it and then breathe a sigh of relief. If only.
I will not use this blog to proselytize about firearms or politics. Yes, guns got into the wrong hands and yes keeping guns out of the hands of mentally unbalanced people, criminals and gang members would prevent deaths. That is not my cause. There are plenty of voices on both sides of that.
The problem is that there is evil in the world. If you are going to believe in God you must acknowledge that there is an adversary. Selfishness, pride, fear and hate are its tools. When a tragedy like this happens most of us are reminded of it. But let’s also not forget the slow subtlety that can work on us. Little lies I may tell, anger or lust in my heart, and lots of other very little things slowly separate me from God.
I don’t like writing about sin. I would rather blog about amusing stories from my past. But I don’t want to go on doing anything until I confess that I am a sinner just like every other person reading this or not reading this. In the same way people try to get their minds wrapped around a tragedy I try to wrap my mind around God. But God is too big to wrap my mind around so I end up creating my own version of God and that is idolatry. While I cannot ever fully understand God I can know him more every day through reading His Word, prayer and learning more about Him.
We cannot ever fully understand the tragedies either. While we cannot isolate ourselves and live in denial, we can grow closer to God every day.
I am posting a link to a site. Tenth dot ministries is a great place to start your day.
http://www.tenthdotministries.com/
If this blog was too much of a rant, visit Tenth dot every day instead.