PEACE BEYOND WHAT I CAN COMPREHEND OR UNDERSTAND

 Greetings Peaceful Ones...in the midst of chaos.

As of this writing...we have just experienced ANOTHER national tragedy...where 28 children and adults were gunned down in Connecticut.  They outcry is WHY!  You watched the news...you read the newspapers...you view the various Facebook posts and you see a common statement..."I just don't understand..."  When things like senseless killings, terrorists attacks...unexplainable accidents, sober drivers killed by drunk drivers while the drunk does not even have a scar...we question ourselves, our faith, our God...and at times...either lose our faith or even give up trying.

Usually the debate turns away from the victims and turns to the cause and if guns are involved...the gun control debate heats up with a swirling mix of emotions, facts, misinformation bandied about.  People get political and begin to bring out the constitution...Bill of Rights...Declaration of Independence and begins to pick out the parts that would support their beliefs.  On one side people in the extreme declare getting rid of ALL hand guns, automatic weapons, etc...and echo what the group Steppenwolfe sang back in the late 60's..."fire ALL of our guns at once...explode into space..."  The other side of the debate argues that we need to enforce current gun control laws...and cry out we have  a "right to bear arms" (2nd Amendment).  They state that..."if you OUTLAW guns...only OUTLAWS will have guns."...or "guns don't kill people...it's people that kills people."  The bottom line is...no one can comprehend or understand WHY.  We all agree it is a tragedy.


The problem on the surface of course is people.   According to the U.S. and World Population Clock the count of human beings (people) is currently as of this writing on December 17th 2012 at 7:07 A.M Central Standard Time is:

U.S.=314,956,018

WORLD=7,059,133,260

With that many people on this swirling, whirling, 3rd Rock from the Sun...Planet Earth...I can see where Linus is coming from.  I mean..."For God so loved the world...but the best I can do is tolerate some people in the world." (R.L.B.)


In this land...this world...in our class we call it the Land Called Nitty Gritty.  This is where real life happens with real joy and real sadness, with real victory and real defeat, with real success and real failure, with real happiness and real tragedy.  People live...people die. 

Whatever happens...the good, bad or ugly... many times I find myself unable to comprehend or understand why things happen.  It is just happenstance is it an uncaring God, or is there a devil...who manifests evil through people.  This picture of a house from superior view is from the movie IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE...where the opening is people praying...and those prayers for a man named George Baily who is in dire straits...begins to swirl upward and are joined by many other prayers in Bedford Falls

How can I get comprehension of unexplainable events.  How can I simply not fall apart in the face of tragedy?  In the Bible...there is a promise of a PEACE that surpasses/passes ALL COMPREHENSION or UNDERSTANDING.  The kind of peace that I CAN understand or comprehend is the absence of conflict.  When things are going well...when there are peace treaties written and cease fires are actually adhered to...the is peace.  When my job is going good...when I have money in my bank account, when there is food on the table, when I am healthy and physically fit, when I read the paper, listen to the news, read my Facebook...and there is no negative news or sentiments written about..I am at REST...in a position of WHOLENESS...I can comprehend and understand PEACE.  But guess what.  That is NOT reality.  Life is filled with good, bad and ugly and it is constantly in FLUX and change.

I like Bruce Cockburn's song THE WHOLE NIGHT SKY from The Charity of Night project.

THE WHOLE NIGHT SKY (Bruce Cockburn)

They turned their backs...I made it too hard
Every place they touched me...is a laceration now

Sometimes a wind comes OUT OF NOWHERE...and knocks you off your feet
And look...see my TEARS...They fill the whole night sky...the whole night sky

Derailed and Desperate...how did I get here?
Hanging from this high wire...by the TATTERS OF MY FAITH

Sometimes a wind comes OUT OF NOWHERE...and knocks you off your feet
And look, see my TEARS...they fill the whole night sky...the whole night sky


This song speaks to me of the various tragedies that takes place in the world and in our personal lives.
Of course...as I sit in my warm home, with my belly filled with food, with no current tragedy taking place in my own personal life...I can sit back like an arm chair quarterback and second guess how people should react, what should take place, and how people should feel.  What can I do...to at least bring some kind of understanding and comprehension and understanding to this madness.

1.  Pray for the victims and there families and don't turn it into a political or religious debate. Don't point a finger as they grieve and begin to tell them what they need to do or how they should feel.

2.  Implement Philippians 4:6-7 for your own personal life...pray, supplicate, and thank God in the face of anxiety...with the cause and effect of a PEACE that surpasses ALL comprehension and understanding.

3.  Don't allow your mind to be scattered on a thousand thought...get your focus back as you walk out Isaiah 26:3...as "steadfast of mind...thou will keep in perfect peace (shalom shalom) because it is stayed on you."

4.  Absorb Psalm 37 and see how you need to deal with evildoers and wrongdoers. 

5.  Be SALT and LIGHT in a dark world.  "Darker the world...the brighter the light."  Be available to introduce others to the God of Comfort (II Corinthians 1:3-7)

FINAL THOUGHTS...FINALLY

Many years ago...when our Saviour entered this world...the devil...wanted to end His life before He was able to grow up...and fulfill His destiny as the Saviour of the World. The devil utilized a human being to set things into motion to seek Him out and kill Him...and in the wake of this searched killed many innocent children.

"Then when Herod saw that he had been tricked by the magi; he became very enraged, and sent and slew all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its environs, from TWO YEARS OLD AND UNDER, according to the time which he had ascertained from the magi. Then that which was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled saying...A voice was heard in Rama...weeping and great morning...Rachel weeping for her children and she refused to be comforted...because they were no more." (Matthew 2:16-18)

There is nothing new under the sun...the devil has no new tactics...evil is still evil and manifested through human beings...and the pain of parents suffering is still real...and only God can take a tragic event...and turn it around..somehow...and take...what the devil meant for harm...and turn it into God.

"We know that ALL THINGS (the good, the bad, the ugly) works together for good to them that love the Lord and are called according to His purpose" (Romans 8:28)

FINAL THOUGHT FINALLY...PART 2

I still don't UNDERSTAND or COMPREHEND...but I cling to His peace to get me through these things.

Rodney