We spend billions on violent movies, we binge-watch countless hours of bloody TV-MA series, we spend days of our lives killing people in first-person shooter video games—and then we are shocked by yet another story of a mass killing. Really?!? I’m not surprised by mass shootings. I’m surprised anyone is surprised anymore. Why? Because this is our culture. This is our nation.
I’m more than a little cynical about our nation’s ability to change this love-hate relationship with violence. Gun control or not, destruction of life is sown into the fabric; it’s the way things work around here. In the wake of yet another brutal, senseless tragedy, people immediately retreat to their political corner, express outrage at the other side, send thoughts and prayers, and then promptly forget about it a few days later…only to be outraged by the next tragedy. 3,000 years ago, the Teacher wrote, “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.” (Ecc 1:2) Sometimes that exactly how I feel.
But these murdered people, gunned down at a concert in Las Vegas or a church in Sutherland Springs, TX, are our brothers and sisters. They are the neighbors Jesus called us to love as ourselves. And their blood cries out to our Heavenly Father who is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. So as followers of Jesus, how are we supposed to process this? What are we supposed to do? Whatever we’re led to do—whether seeking to bring comfort or medical help or justice or reform or something else—we cannot lose our hope.