Senseless

The world has always been a dangerous place. There has been violence, murder, and hatred as long as there have been people.

Recently, it has been thrown on the front page of the news in gory illustration. Between the Colorado theater shootings and the Wisconsin temple shootings, eighteen people were killed. And amid the grief and mourning, we naturally question if these tragedies could have been prevented. Or more to the point, we wonder how to prevent future recurrences. Do we need to amend our gun laws? Should there be stricter security? How do we punish the guilty?

These and similar questions are completely reasonable, and some of them should be seriously considered. And of course anger is understandable. Even anger at God. How could a loving, all-powerful God allow such things? And to make matters worse, some try to provide answers—as if we have them to offer. Are any of these answers useful? “God has a plan,” or “everything happens for a reason.” And so on. Sigh.

Platitudes like these are never helpful. In fact, they can really hurt. Was it in God’s plan for all these people to die? If so, I don’t know that I want anything to do with such a God. And I honestly think that sometimes there is no reason—beyond the simple truth that we are broken people living in a broken world. There is in a way a bleakness about this perspective, as if there is no reason perhaps for anything. I would say that some things happen for a reason that we soon figure out; some, for a reason that we discern much later; some, for a reason that we may never discern; and some, for no reason at all.

It’s all part of life. Much of it is beautiful; some is very ugly indeed. Does this mean that God likes the ugly part? I would think not; but then, I also tend to believe that we are not just simply pawns on God’s cosmic chess board with no say in where we are moved. That, I think, would be a pretty bleak picture. Yes, there are certainly things we cannot control. But we all have choices to make. In any given situation, we choose how to respond. That is at once both comforting and scary. We are not, however, stuck with our current course. However difficult, however dire, we can always choose.

To hope.