Saturday Ramblings 7.21.12

Posted byChaplainmikePosted inJeff Dunn, Saturday Ramblings

Welcome to a somber and shortened version of Saturday Ramblings. As of this writing on Friday night, the death toll in the Aurora, Colorado shootings stands at 12, with more than 50 wounded. This just doesn’t seem to me to be a good day to poke fun at Joel Osteen, Ed Young Jr., or any other clowns in the evangelical circus.

I started the day yesterday early as I had to drive to Wichita for some training. I listened to reports from Colorado detailing the shooting spree at a theatre where the latest Batman movie was premiering. I was listening to one of my favorite radio stations, WLW from Cincinnati, though I knew what would be coming. The talk show host could not resist talking about what might have been if only Colorado would allow conceal-and-carry. Later, as I read thru the news from various web sites, I read many others calling for tighter gun control. ABC News was quick to tie the shooter to the Tea Party; too quick, as it turned out. It wasn’t true, and they had to issue an apology. Not that that would put the rabbit back in the hat, though.

In this world, senseless violence and tragic events occur at an all-too frequent pace. Last Saturday in my hometown of Tulsa, a man walked out of a Best Buy into a hailstorm of bullets. Eight struck the man. A ninth broke through the store’s front window and ended in the chest of Wesley Brown, a good man who was picking out a movie with his ten-year-old daughter. Two men dead. One a retaliation for another gang killing, the other “collateral damage,” as the alleged shooter called it.

Senseless violence has been a part of our world since the fall. That is not an excuse, nor even an explanation. And it sure as hell doesn’t help those who lost loved ones in Aurora, Colorado or lost a husband and father inside a Tulsa Best Buy this week. All I can say is love is the answer to any and all questions. Not my love or your love. God’s love. And his love is unlike our love. We think of love as being something to make us happy or make us feel good inside. God’s love is totally other than what we have ever encountered. His love for this world is so beyond what we can imagine, there is no way to even begin describing it. And when we do try to put his love in a picture frame and say “There it is”, we always leave out much of who Love Is.

Love Is. God Is Love. Therefore, Love Is. When we encounter hate and terror and destruction of lives, it is hard to reconcile it all with a simple “God is love,” but there is nothing more than that.

[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6vR-TQ7n68′%5D

24 thoughts on “Saturday Ramblings 7.21.12”

  1. Thank you for the loving, edifying comments on this thread, I needed that today. Was feeling a wee bit sad at reading so much unloving talk, hateful talk, several commenters turned me back to the face of Jesus.

    Like

  3. I would recommend “Insurrection” by Peter Rollins as it poignantly addresses the issue of how we are destiny and we bring God to difficult and grievious situations. Explanations and vitriole fall short but what may actually work is the support and love of real people working through the chaos together. We all share the same potential and peril so perhaps we can share the same possibilities in Christ.

    Like

  4. This isn’t about the violence in Colorado, but some good news. Couple of nights ago, in spite of the weather forecast, it started raining around 3 am and continued to most of the day. We got at least 2 inches here, maybe more. My son-in-law is a much happier man, at least for now. His bean crops were at a crucial period and needed the rain badly. He was encouraged enough to sell some beans he has in storage before market prices reacted to the rain. Also it helped at least some of the corn, which for the most part is in bad shaped, except for irrigated fields. The temperature has also cooled down significantly.

    So, we are all thanking God, and continuing to pray “give us this day our daily bread.”

    Like

  5. Please explain how anything Jeff posted in this edition was “a dig.” I expect empirical evidence.

    Like

  6. Life is fragile, you can’t undo life, you can just silently weep for the tragedies of life. The tragedy of a man going off on the wrong track and the tragedy of those pulled into this tragedy.
    Oh Lord. help us to understand.

    Like

  8. “I was shown how fragile life was on Saturday. I saw the terror on bystanders’ faces. I saw the victims of a senseless crime. I saw lives change. I was reminded that we don’t know when or where our time on Earth will end. When or where we will breathe our last breath.”
    Jessica Ghawi wrote those words after surviving a shooting at a Toronto Mall on June 5th, she was one of the victims in Colorado.

    Like

  9. A Canadian twist on the story. From the Toronto Star…

    “Jessica Ghawi wrote on her blog in June that she had a new-found appreciation for the preciousness of life after surviving the Eaton Centre shooting [in Toronto]. Little more than a month later, she would be dead, killed in Colorado by a man wielding a gun, something she had so narrowly avoided in Toronto. ”

    In Toronto she left the scene of the shooting, 3 minutes before it occurred.

    Like

  11. I love the song. I have it downloaded on my ipod in every language I can find. I even have a t-shirt with ‘Hello, my name is wretch’ silk printed on it. I cry every time I hear it-the words speak to my heart and my life. And, it touches the people I work with daily, some like the perpetrators of these crimes. I am a jail chaplain.

    You’re right-there are no excuses or justifications for such atrocities. The gunman will experience the consequences of his actions to the full extent of the law. Rightfully so.

    Now is not the time to go into the reasons someone would harbor extreme hate. Maybe someday a blog will show up about people who lash out to hurt others. Until then, I think about the life of John Newton and how God transformed him by the cross of Jesus Christ.

    But right now, I pray the families heal.

    Like

  12. I love the song. I have it downloaded on my ipod in every language I can find. I even have a t-shirt with ‘Hello, my name is wretch’ silk printed on it. I cry every time I hear it-the words speak to my heart and my life. And, it touches the people I work with daily, some like the perpetrators of these crimes. I am a jail chaplain.

    You’re right-there are no excuses or justifications for such atrocities. The gunman will experience the consequences of his actions to the full extent of the law. Rightfully so.

    Now is not the time to go into the reasons someone would harbor extreme hate. Maybe someday a blog will show up about people who lash out to hurt others. Until then, I think about the life of John Newton and how God transformed him by the cross of Jesus Christ.

    More importantly, I pray the families heal.

    Like

  14. Later, as I read thru the news from various web sites, I read many others calling for tighter gun control. ABC News was quick to tie the shooter to the Tea Party; too quick, as it turned out.

    Massacre in a theater? Twelve dead, seventy wounded? “I am The Joker”? WHAT A CHANCE TO ADVANCE OUR AGENDA!

    Just like Pat Robertson or John Piper or Fred Phelps claiming “SEE HOW GOD IS PUNISHING US!”

    Like

  15. “This just doesn’t seem to me to be a good day to poke fun at Joel Osteen, Ed Young Jr., or any other clowns in the evangelical circus.” That’s what he said. That’s it. Jeff, in passing, remarked that they were clowns in a circus. That is hardly hate-mongering, unless you have a pathological fear and hatred of actual clowns (which I totally understand if you do).

    And does it occur to you that maybe one’s theology–which, in the end, is just what one thinks and believes about God–might actually affect where one spends eternity?

    Like

  16. Jesus said: “Because of the increase in wickedness the love of many will grow cold.” I think we’re there.

    Like

  17. You’re unbelievable! In the midst of such an event you still find a way to throw a dig at osteen an young. Good tinder where you’re priorities are! Keep up the hate Mongering in the name of Christ… And let the evangelists worry about the future of these and billions of others on the planet. Because after all… It is far more important that the world agrees with you theologically than we’re they spend eternaity! Good thinking!

    Like

  19. Thanks for the Judy Collins fix, Jeff. Anytime.

    Here’s what Archie Bunker said about gun control. It needs to be heard, and some people don’t see it as a parody:

    Like

  21. Almighty God, Father of mercies and giver of comfort: Deal graciously, we pray, with all who mourn; that, casting all their care on you, they may know the consolation of your love; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

    Like

  22. Father of all, we pray to you for those we love, but see no longer: Grant them your peace; let light perpetual shine upon them; and, in your loving wisdom and almighty power, work in them the good purpose of your perfect will; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

    Like

  24. Our prayers go out to the victims of the families. The daily confrontation of evil should hopefully bring us closer to the arms of Christ and force us to look up and long for our “other” home where there will be no tears no pain and no unpaid bills.

    Bless you and yours Jeff.

    Like

Leave a comment