Today was a terrible day in Connecticut. An unconfirmed
number of children have been lost along with teachers and administrators. An
unconfirmed number of people will never get their child off the bus or pick
them up in carpool today. An unconfirmed number of people have been touched by
those who died or those who were traumatized firsthand by this event.
Imagine walking into your child’s school on Monday morning
and a whole classroom is missing.
Devastating.
Please understand the following: This was the result of evil
in the world. Satan rears his filthy head in many ways. He loves to make us
cry. He loves to tear our hearts apart. He knows what will get our attention.
Please understand this as well: No gun control law, no metal
detector, no fence, no visitation policy or school sign in sheet will keep a
tragedy such as this from happening again. These are mere bandaids.
There is one and only one thing that will keep evil out of
this world:
We must BE THE CHURCH.
What does this mean? It’s so simple. We must be
outward focused. We must take care of one another. We must do as much good as
possible. We must go the extra mile to help another human. We must take care of
ourselves and our families but we must put others first. Love them. Love the unlovable.
We can only match evil if we work at it relentlessly and chip at it
little by little, piece by piece each and every day. Some days I totally suck
at this…because I am human. But on the days that I am not my best, I am confident
that there are an army of believers out in the world making up for my
shortcomings.
But this army of goodness must increase in order to make a
difference in the world. Even if you don’t believe that Jesus Christ died for
your sins and that you will spend eternity in heaven with him (although I pray
that you do!), I know that it is fully possible for you to BE THE CHURCH and
follow His teachings. Think about it. YOU can make a difference in the next
near tragedy. YOU could be the person who showed a kindness to someone and
changed the trajectory of a life. Or lives. Think about that.
GO. DO SOMETHING. BE THE CHURCH.
Acts 20:28
28 Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has
made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his
own blood.
Romans 12:3-5
3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself
more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment,
in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. 4 Just as each of us
has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same
function, 5 so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs
to all the others.
1 Corinthians 12:12-26
12 The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its
parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. 13 For we were all
baptized by one Spirit into one body-whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free-and
we were all given the one Spirit to drink.14 Now the body is not made up of one
part but of many. 15 If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I
do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part
of the body. 16And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do
not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of
the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing
be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But in
fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he
wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As
it is, there are many parts, but one body.21 The eye cannot say to the hand,
"I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I
don't need you!" 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to
be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable
we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated
with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment.
But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the
parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but
that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part
suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part
rejoices with it.
