Thoughts On Recent Events, Tragedies, And Living

Over the past week or so, since the Boston Marathon Bombing and the West, Texas explosion, I have heard people respond and seek to put into perspective their pain, shock, anger, and a host of other emotions. Many are looking for words to explain and finding that words are lacking in their ability to scratch the surface of deep emotion. The two most common responses involve some form of reacting in anger or withdrawing from a world that can be so painful.

The great author and Christian, C. S. Lewis of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe fame, writes in The Four Loves, “In words which can still bring tears to the eyes, St. Augustine describes the desolation in which the death of his friend Nebridius plunged him (Confessions, IV, 10). Then he draws a moral. This is what comes, he says, of giving one’s heart to anything but God. All human beings pass away. Do not let your happiness depend on something you may lose. If love is to be a blessing, not a misery, it must be for the only Beloved who will never pass away.

Of course this is excellent sense. . . Of all arguments against love none makes so strong an appeal to my nature as ‘Careful! This might lead you to suffering!’

To my nature, my temperament, yes. Not to my conscience. When I respond to that appeal I seem to myself to be a thousand miles away from Christ. . .

There is no escape along the lines St. Augustine suggests. Nor along any other lines. There is no safe investment. To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket – safe, dark, motionless, airless – it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside of Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all dangers and perturbations of love is Hell.”

In John 15:13-15, we read, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends . . . I do not call you servants any longer . . . but I have called you friends. . .” Here we learn one of the timeless truths so often rediscovered in Scripture. If you want to have a friend, you must be a friend. Being a friend means taking a risk, being vulnerable. One of the greatest hopes for our world (where so few know their neighbors, seldom talk to family, spend all their free time in personal endeavors, and seldom reach out to those in need) is relearning that your life, your involvement really can make a difference!

If you want to see the power and joy of vulnerability, of friendship do something different. Volunteer at your church, assist a civic organization, or spend time with an organization that helps the homeless or the needy. Will the effort be uncomfortable or a little difficult? Hopefully! But the effort will open our “casket of selfishness,” sent our hearts free, and let us experience the power of love. Giving yourself to another, there is no greater expression or experience of love. As we face the difficulties we have recently experienced as a nation, to withdraw or lash out, will destroy us. Our only hope for justice, for building new life, for recreating our society, is found in practicing powerful, practical love. Such love overcomes and, by God's grace, lifts us above. Those who have lost, those closest to the pain of the events deserve such a response.

A Word In Need of a Better Way

Part of being a pastor is that I am often asked about my views on current issues, events, etc. The list of subjects is long and greatly varied. Topics included range from the state of affairs in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the Newtown shootings, the Boston Marathon bombings, politics, zombies, cable news, Facebook, the latest reality show and so much more. On occasion, there is actually a question about God or the Bible tossed in.

In our tense, ever changing, high speed world, questions whiz by like beat-up trucks on I-81! Many of our questions flow from a sense that life is as out of control as many of those interstate vehicles appear to be. As a Christian, when I prayerfully ponder such questions, when I allow my heart and mind to wander to those difficult and painful places, I am reminded of the words of Baker Stevenson Smith, Sr. He was a Presbyterian elder and the father of Dudley-Brian Smith, a great Presbyterian, internationally known Celtic musician, and one of the founders of Smithfield Fair, which can be heard on programs such as The Thistle and the Shamrock. In the book “A Walk in Wisdom,” Mr. Smith writes the follow concerning wisdom and Colossians 4:5-6. His words, at least to me, are the words we need to hear in our deeply troubled time.

“Walk is a rather wonderful word in Scripture, as applied to believers. It has to do with the characteristics of the new person in Christ, with faith, with spirituality, with consistency, love, light, truth, wisdom, and more. The way of life of the Christian must not be the way of the world. Our walk in this life as children of God has to be noticeably different from unbelievers…

The Psalmist prays…‘so teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom.’ So, we are to walk in the wisdom of God, showing to the world His righteousness. We are to redeem time, buy up the time as it was, using every opportunity to serve the Lord and be a witness to our God and King.

We also need to be very careful of our speech, reflecting wisdom and grace. No ‘holier than thou’ speaking, but softly and gently, speaking the truth in love…So let us be concerned with our walk before [others], and be consistent about it, that we make a proper witness of Him who has called us. You might be surprised at the impact it will make…”

Ours is a broken world, filled with damaged people, many of whom are looking for a different, better way than what this world has to offer. There are many important issues in this world that Christians, pastors, denominations, and others must address. In a world crying for answers to solutions no one has the time or energy to truly resolve, where noise, and violence, and heartbreak, and joy, and love, and the other noises of our world easily crowd out everything else. Eventually, it all sounds the same and is easily ignored. I am convinced that the greater issue for us, as those who claim to follow Jesus, is, “What does the content of our lives proclaim about the faith and way of life we hold so dear?” In the end, our “proper witness of Him” might become the only thing that dampens the noise long enough for the world to experience and learn the better way of the Savior.