ParisGrief

The pictures and stories keep coming in from Paris. More information and updates keep crawling across the bottom of the screen. What happened in Paris Friday is the result of Act Two in our Story, right? The Fall. The Perished Kingdom. Men and women rebel against the Creator, they turn their backs on the God of Heaven and Earth, and sin is the result. Sin. Violence. Death. Chaos. Grief. Terrible, gut-wrenching, heart-breaking grief.

We see it. We hear it. We can even feel it.

And we pray.

We pray for the victims and their families. I can’t imagine the horror, the fear, the tremendous loss.  We pray for the perpetrators of this evil and their families. I can’t understand how sick and distorted the image of God must be in the people who pull off these kinds of horrific acts of violence; how twisted and sad, it’s so incredibly sad. And we pray for government leaders and their families. I can’t comprehend the tremendous pressure and stress these people must feel, the burden of leadership, the responsibility to make things right, the impossible chore of balancing freedom and security, caution and action, justice and patience, all with the proper amounts of calculated diplomacy.

I think we’re called to pray.

We’re also called to proclaim.

God has made a lot of promises to us. In Act Three, God declares that he’s going to fix everything. In Act Four, God comes to this earth to suffer these same kinds of atrocities with us to prove he’ll do anything — everything! — to fix what’s wrong with this world and his people. We see the conclusion to the Story in Act Six: everything is fixed. Peace between all people. Perfect harmony between the Creator and his creation. No violence. No war. No death. No tears.

While we live in the unfinished Fifth Act, we proclaim. With our lips, with our lives, and through our Christian communities. Jesus is Lord. He really is fixing everything. And we all need to get in on it.

I can’t explain terrorism and airplane crashes and bombings. It’s sin. It’s Act Two. And the world leaders and politicians have no solution. Whatever they’re saying and whatever they’re promising — they’re making a lot of statements and making a lot of promises — is not going to work. More bombs and more violence and more death doesn’t fix this. The only ruler with the solution is our risen and coming Lord Christ Jesus. He alone can make right everything that’s wrong. He alone can fix this. And he is. He is risen and he is coming and he is reigning supreme right now at the right hand of the Father in heaven. That’s what we proclaim.

And we pray.

Peace,

Allan