Repaying Evil with Love... Crazy Love
Posted by Kaylee K on Thursday, February 15, 2018 Under: Faith
In the wake of the Parkfield, FL shootings it is again challenging to watch the news. It's challenging even to be on Facebook and see the polarized conversations. Or, honestly, for me it is sometimes more challenging to see selfies and trivial minutia posted when I know of the serious condition of our world. But then again, social media really is more a means of escape than a place for answers. So, where do we turn? How do we respond?
It seems to me that any human-offered solution is limited. The attacks that plague America or the violence that led hundreds of thousands of young people to flee their home countries in search of hope in Europe have no simple human solution. I believe that is because there is a root evil that drives all of these situations. And, evil cannot be regulated or negotiated. There is no compromising with evil. It seeks to destroy.
At the end of the day, I can only see one response and it is love. Not the trivialized (albeit sincere) offering of love sent out towards those who are victimized but tough love...the kind of love that led Jesus to allow his body to be mangled, beaten, broken and hung on a cross so that evil would be overcome.
Yeah, it sounds crazy. But aren't we living in crazy? How many more news stories of a young person carrying an assault weapon into his school and killing innocents can we take without screaming, "This IS crazy!"? How many more boats filled with desperate young people wanting a place to start life over after they've been enslaved, raped, brutalized and tortured can we watch overturn and sink before we tear our clothes in mourning, fall to our knees and sob, "THIS is crazy."?
So, perhaps it is time for a crazy response...crazy by human standards but standard for God. It is time for a love not of human quality but of God quality. It is the only response we have to evil. And we are promised that when we trust God's love and Jesus' sacrifice, we will be more than conquerors (Bible, Romans 8:31-39).
It's written all over the Bible. The answers are there. It is a God way; for this world it is mostly a new way. To turn away from our own contributions to what is evil and turn toward a sacrificial love that saves. Do we have the courage? Can we start today and spend this Lenten season learning God's way? Open any section of the New Testament and see a new love that saves...saves you, saves me, saves the world.
It seems to me that any human-offered solution is limited. The attacks that plague America or the violence that led hundreds of thousands of young people to flee their home countries in search of hope in Europe have no simple human solution. I believe that is because there is a root evil that drives all of these situations. And, evil cannot be regulated or negotiated. There is no compromising with evil. It seeks to destroy.
At the end of the day, I can only see one response and it is love. Not the trivialized (albeit sincere) offering of love sent out towards those who are victimized but tough love...the kind of love that led Jesus to allow his body to be mangled, beaten, broken and hung on a cross so that evil would be overcome.
Yeah, it sounds crazy. But aren't we living in crazy? How many more news stories of a young person carrying an assault weapon into his school and killing innocents can we take without screaming, "This IS crazy!"? How many more boats filled with desperate young people wanting a place to start life over after they've been enslaved, raped, brutalized and tortured can we watch overturn and sink before we tear our clothes in mourning, fall to our knees and sob, "THIS is crazy."?
So, perhaps it is time for a crazy response...crazy by human standards but standard for God. It is time for a love not of human quality but of God quality. It is the only response we have to evil. And we are promised that when we trust God's love and Jesus' sacrifice, we will be more than conquerors (Bible, Romans 8:31-39).
It's written all over the Bible. The answers are there. It is a God way; for this world it is mostly a new way. To turn away from our own contributions to what is evil and turn toward a sacrificial love that saves. Do we have the courage? Can we start today and spend this Lenten season learning God's way? Open any section of the New Testament and see a new love that saves...saves you, saves me, saves the world.
In : Faith
Tags: faith jesus love