Why?

Looking back it would have seemed that Wednesday was a normal day. It was beautiful in the morning as I jogged before the sun rose. I had a great breakfast Matt’s with a good friend. We discussed the preceding day’s event at the Season of Service training session and made astute observations. I searched around for a wireless device to help with tutoring and potentially working with adults. I visited my dad and had a good visit and was able to fix his cable box, which was out because of the amazing storm the night before. Little did I know that the day would end with multiple tragedies that would change many people’s lives forever.

I was driving in the afternoon on my normal route and noticed how all of a sudden a major road was blocked off and traffic was diverted. I was complaining a little to myself about how long this detour was taking. If I had known that someone had just shot someone and that a four year old had also been hit I wouldn’t have been so quick to complain. I didn’t find this info out until later that night.

We did our normal tutoring session with about 30 students coming and 12 tutors. We had a great evening that ended with a few frantic phone calls from parents at our South Ranch Habitat Community saying you can’t come home. There has been multiple shootings and the entire neighborhood was blocked off. Ok, now what do I do with 30 kids who can hang out maybe another 30 minutes at the Community Center before it closes. We decide to caravan back to the community and attempt to drop off the kids.

As we pull up there is a police SUV blocking the street entering. The officer says it is ok to drive in but that some of the area is blocked off. I was drop off a few kids we discover that the main street, where my van stays and my little car is presently parked is roped off. We talk to the officer, who is surrounded by numerous T.V. and radio vans and tells us that we can walk down to the house but can’t drive through. So we drop off the kids.

As I drive home it hits me that I am becoming numb or de-sensitized to the violence. Someone has been killed in my neighborhood and a few others have been killed closer to my home. I go home and surf the net only to discover that there isn’t any real mention of the South Ranch incident but the earlier one that caused traffic delays is mentioned. At home we talk about the racial tensions that exist among all of us. No one is exempt from being somewhat of a ‘racist’ or prejudiced against someone.

I get up and do my normal routine, i.e. go for a walk with Anne and the dogs and then have lunch with a couple of good friends who are very key in our work. As we eat and chat about what happened Marc makes the same comment about how even the kids in the community didn’t seem to be bothered by what had happened. They quickly go back to playing in the park as if nothing happened. I had a detailed text from one of the mom’s talking about a totally different situation the same night where two of her second cousins are beat up and arrested in a similar situation. Then we all think to ourselves when will this stop? We joke about whether any of our supporters who live in the burbs would even consider coming if they knew what really happened.

I go to the Apple Store to get one of my Imacs fixed and a used laptop setup. I end up meeting with a few kids for guitar lessons, take a few pics and post them on Facebook. The to my surprise one of the mom’s makes the comment about how beautiful it is to see the kids doing guitar and how that made it a great day instead of what happened only 24 hours prior with a shooting in the same spot.

I have a degree in philosophy and a Masters in theological studies that help me paint a picture of the dilemma with the problem of evil. How can there be evil if there is a God who is all-powerful and totally good and holy? The answer that many make is that either God is the cause of this evil, he really isn’t all-powerful and isn’t good. This makes me cringe knowing that the real answer than is that there isn’t any such a thing as good or evil that might makes right or that relativism has won out over any type of moral deism.

The Bible is clear that God isn’t the author of evil, that man is chosen the path of sin and rebellion, that man doesn’t totally live out this sin nature and that there is only one who can remedy this true mess – Jesus Christ. The transformation happens in bits and pieces in that the ultimate impact is that we are heaven bound and will be made new but in our temporal situation we struggle with the choice of whether to respond in this crisis with a get even attitude, take the law into our own hands or to say it is time to move to a better neighborhood. My conviction is that it is time to stand up against the evil, be an advocate for those who are being attacked and be a living example of grace, mercy and reconciliation.