Over the past few days we have been bombarded with sounds and pictures of evil. When the Bible describes the world it always has a ring of truth because there is an admixture of pain and redemption; evil and good; sickness and healing; death and resurrection. Unlike myths about King Arthur and old time monarchs the Bible's stories do not cover up the sins and griefs of humanity.
The massacres in Iraq and the USA by paranoid men with guns can cause us to despair but Jesus calls us to have hope as we place our faith in Him. I trust in God but I also believe that there are evil people who must be stopped or they will destroy us.
Some of the people I admire seem to think that all we need to do to get peace in the world is "be nice". They are like a woman who recently called a local radio talk show and angrily denounced President Bush because he has not stopped the violence in the Middle East. He should just go over to Iraq and tell the Shia and the Sunni to make nice with each other.
It occurred to me that this lady had wonderful intentions but she is out of touch with reality. The Shia and Sunni branches of Islam have been warring for several hundred years and they know nothing of forgiveness. The war in Iraq may have been a blunder. We do not know if it was right or wrong decision in the long run. The current pain is great but only after many years will we know if the decision to take Saddam out of power was wise.
However, one thing is sure. There are and always will be evil in the hearts and souls of many people and it is usually in the long term interest of good people to take them out. I wish someone had taken Mr. Cho out of society before he killed 32 innocent people. I wish someone had taken Stalin and Hitler out but no one did and they killed millions of innocent people.
God alone is good and we need His power and love each day. We also need to pray for people in power because their decisions have enormous consequences.
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