An American Tragedy

Our nation stands united in grief. 20 innocent lives have been taken from us – too young, too soon. 20 sets of parents mourn today – and will continue to mourn for long days to come. The pain of loss doesn’t go away, the memory of tragedy doesn’t fade, you just kind of get used to it.

Our nation stands united in a debate, “How?” “What?” “Why?” For these questions there are not now, nor will there ever be any answers.

Today we mourn as a nation, we grieve together, hold each other and many will express their horror, anger and rage as they wonder why this could have happened.

We stand united today – for all the wrong reasons. Instead of celebrating another day of living, we are mourning another American tragedy. Too soon, too many, too frequent.

Today we stand united and it should not be so. We wonder what can be done to prevent such grievous crimes in the future, but we refuse to acknowledge what caused this terrible tragedy today. We wonder how such an American tragedy can be prevented tomorrow, but we do not stop to consider the source, the cause or the reasons for such catastrophes.

20 innocent lives were lost in a small American town, victims of another senseless act of violence in a nation grown weary of such acts, filled with horror when they occur and desperately trying to make sense, when no sense is possible. But this terrible tragedy is only the tip of the iceberg. More are to come.

We are bereft of the foundation of our soul. We have smashed our nation’s foundation of strength replacing it with one of straw. We have eliminated God and Jesus from our classrooms, from our sports, from our TV, from our politics, from Wall Street, from our homes, from our families and from our lives and then we wonder “Why?” when something goes wrong.

The presence of God may not have prevented this terrible tragedy nor may His presence prevent others in the future, but the absence of God is guaranteed to make future American tragedies more likely.

Sandy Hook is a true American tragedy, but we must not let this be the first of many. We cannot compound this tragedy by laying the seeds for many more. We lay these seeds by taking away guns. We stoke the flames of future tragedy by pushing Jesus father away. The murder of 20  innocent children at Sandy Hook Elementary School is a true American tragedy and we are guaranteed to multiply it if we do not see the face of evil.

Evil came to Sandy Hook. No doubt. Pure, ugly, horrible, frightening, evil. Evil took 20 innocent lives and it will take many more if we do not recognize it for what it is. Many more innocent lives will be lost if we allow evil to use this tragedy to advance its own nefarious aims. Many more will die if we fall under the spell of evil and continue to fall away from the truth of God.

It is only the truth and light of God that can reveal this terrible tragedy for what it is – another move on the chessboard, another piece of a great dark puzzle.

What aims does evil seek? Evil seeks to move us farther away from God, to enslave us, to make us wonder why God would allow this, to make us wonder if there is a God, to make us think that the mind of man and man’s solutions are all that is necessary to solve man’s problems and that science and technology, greed, power, wealth and pleasure can take the place of a hole in your soul.

In short terms, evil seeks to take away our guns so evil can have greater control over our lives, evil seeks to increase the powers of government so that the powers of the individual are less, evil seeks to take away your freedom so that you are enslaved to bureaucracy, evil seeks to make you wonder if God exists so you can replace God with science or pleasure, or greed or wealth; evil seeks to divide this nation on political and religious lines – over the debate on gun control – so that evil will have the power to force decisions upon us all; evil seeks to control, so that you are enslaved.

You must not forget that we are in a great battle between truth and lies, between light and dark, between good and evil. And in this war, the most recent battle has claimed 20 innocent lives. God is asking you to make a stand, here, now, today. Guns are not evil, evil is evil. Man is not evil, it is the evil in him that is evil. Truth is not evil, it is the lies that will swirl around us in the dark days ahead that are evil.

You will be met with obfuscation, misdirection and disinformation. You will hear tears, sobs and cries of sorrow. You will hear voices of anger, rage – and of mourning. You will hear truth and you will hear lies. But, you must choose. To differentiate between what is right and what is wrong, between what is good and what is evil, between truth and lies, you must choose God. And then let Him steer you in the right direction. You must choose God first because the lies of evil are so intricate and craftily interwoven that no human mind can discern where truth ends and lies begin. You must choose God first and build a strong relationship to Him through His Son Jesus in order to steer through the confusion of the coming debate. You must choose God first because if you do not, you choose wrong.

God seeks our freedom; liberty is freedom, words are freedom, a free and open internet is freedom, the right to peaceable assembly is freedom, the right to a fair, speedy, public and open trial is freedom, the right to own property, to farm as you please, to grow what you please, to buy and sell as you please, to be secure in your personal effects is freedom. Freedom is to be free of a government or a police force or airport security that snatches away your rights in the name of peace and safety when the true aim is slavery, obedience, darkness and death.  Restrict any of these freedoms, prohibit any of these, limit any of these, take away any of these, make the possession or use of these more difficult, ban any of these and you have traded good with evil, light with darkness, truth with lies and freedom with slavery. Do this and you have taken away the light and glory of God and replaced it with the darkness of evil.

Decide. Take your stand. Choose. Choose good or choose evil, choose right or wrong, choose light or choose darkness, choose. Choose. You will be judged.