What I do know...

My heart has been so very heavy since last Friday's events, I'm sure for all of you too. This kind of violence is shocking and disturbing to anyone with a heart I'm sure, but when I listen to these moms and dads, and I think of my own little ones, one almost the age of the victims, I don't know if it pierces just that much deeper.
I don't write a lot about my faith here on my blog, I am pretty outspoken about it on Facebook but I guess my blog is more reserved for my style ideas and adventures and daily life. Not that my faith isn't part of my every day life, because it is, but hopefully that makes sense.

An event like this happens and I feel compelled to write about my Christian faith, especially with people asking why. I don't have all the answers (obviously) but when I can't explain things that happen, I focus on what I do know, which is that God is good, He is our only hope, everything good comes from Him (whether you believe in Him or not) and this world is fallen, it is full of sin, and sin brings suffering. When I pray for this tragedy, I'm praying for the families but I'm also praying for people to run towards God because of this, and not away from Him.

We can't say why God allows something like this, except that we live in this fallen world, and that even when we try our best to live "good" lives and not sin "that much", that we can still be forced to deal with the terrible effects of humanity's sin. We are still in the line of fire.

But this is the core of the Christian faith, that Jesus suffered the consequences of other's sin on the cross, when he didn't have to, He was innocent. He deigned to come down to earth and become a man, God in human flesh, and suffer agony to identify with us, instead of just looking down from His throne and pitying us and leaving us to fend for ourselves....what kind of love is this? It is not something that is born in the human mind, it is a completely holy and perfect love!

Last Friday's suffering is so immediate and close to us here at home, but the sad thing is that innocent people are suffering like this every day, around the world, its just not plastered in our faces 24-7. But I still think its important to listen to these parents remember their sweet children, to appreciate how precious life is, to appreciate that our kids are here to annoy and exasperate us...what would one of these parents give to feel that again?? To remember to be compassionate and to love each other.

Pastor Alan Hawkins described it so well last weekend,
"God's answer to man's agony is not an explanation. It is his own agony. In Christ he meets our confused tragedies with his own passion on a tree. It is not that God does not answer the problem of evil. He answered by his cross. It is rather that we do not like his answer in the face of our immediate demand"

We do not have our innately immediate demand met, for evil things to stop happening, for death to cease, but I stand on the promise in Revelation 21:5, "Behold, I make all things new."

Even so come quickly Lord Jesus!