Earlier this month our nation was shocked by mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio. Events like these are sadly becoming commonplace in our nation. I grieve with those who are suffering over the loss of loved ones, and I pray for God’s grace and healing in their lives.
As is only natural when things like this happen, people are expressing anger and fear and confusion, and they’re asking questions, especially the questions “Why did this happen?” and “What can we do about it?” Those are perfectly legitimate questions. We also live in a society where people demand immediate action, from someone, somewhere, that will stop anything bad from happening to us. We are quick to lay blame and even quicker to demand a fix.
Unfortunately, there is no quick fix for our problems.
Listen to the media long enough and you’ll come away with the idea that our only problem is white supremacy and the only solution is gun control. White supremacy is evil and has no place in our culture. The church must reject white supremacy, but our problems go much deeper than white supremacy.
And while there may indeed be effective legislation that can reduce the number of mass shootings, the truth is that shootings are taking place almost every day in areas with extremely restrictive gun control laws. A quick fix is rarely a good solution, and our problem is much greater than anything that any piece of legislation can solve.
No, in order to come up with a solution, we need to get to the core of the problem, and the problem is simple: sin. When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, sin and evil entered the human race, and every one of us was cursed. In fact, all of creation, our entire world, was cursed. This is why pride and arrogance and hatred and dishonesty and disease and sickness and tragedy and white supremacy and murder and abortion-on-demand and death exist, because we live in a world cursed by sin and evil. We are born sinful and evil.
The solution is just as simple: Jesus. That sounds like a Sunday School answer, but the truth is that people desperately need the forgiveness and salvation that only Jesus provides. No one is beyond the forgiveness of Christ, regardless of who they are or what they’ve done. We are sinners, but the great news is, sinners, like you and me, are why Jesus came! “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
And we as individual Christians, who know Jesus, need to surrender to him completely and allow him to change us, taking away feelings of selfishness, hatred, jealousy, and any thought or action that is short of what God wants for us. I need the forgiveness of Jesus as much or more than anyone, and I need his help and strength every single day in order to be anything beyond what I am without him. We must, as individual believers, allow him to change us into who he wants us to be, so that we as the church will see people as he sees them and love people as he loves them and serve people as he serves them, no matter who they are, what they’ve done, or what they look like.
No matter how bleak things look in the world at times, no matter how bleak your life may feel, there is always hope, because God loves every single person on this planet, including you and me, and he can change the most wicked of hearts, including yours and mine.
Sin is the problem. But Jesus, you are the Answer!