Is there any hope, either for the dead or for the sickness that leads to this type of tragedy?
The details are still sparse on why Army psychiatrist Major Nidal Malik Hasan gunned down over 40 men and women—most of them fellow soldiers—just yesterday at Fort Hood, Texas. Thirteen men and women have had their lives cruelly and abruptly snuffed out by the actions of one man. We are grateful that the quick response of emergency medical and police teams prevented things from being much worse, but that thought brings little solace to the families directly robbed of fathers, husbands, sons, mothers, wives and daughters.
Our minds are instantly flooded with so many questions after such a tragic situation. After the answers are delivered on the specific details of the incident, we eventually migrate to the larger questions like how do we comfort the grieving? What hope can they – and all of us – grasp on to? Why do these things keep happening?
Names like Columbine, Red Lake, the Amish West Nickel Mines, Virginia Tech, Northern Illinois, are so ingrained in our national consciousness they all begin to blur together. I wish that we could call this an isolated incident—but of late, mass murders and serial killings have become topics we've just become used to hearing about. Just while I was editing this commentary my wife called with the news that another mass shooting is unfolding in Orlando, Florida. I don't even want to go to the news and see how this one turns out, but I know I have to.
We live in a world where massacres no longer surprise as they once did. One where unsuspecting lives can be ended in a matter of seconds by anyone with a cause and a gun. One where these same murderers can feel perfectly justified in and even enjoy their sprees of death.
This is our world. Scientists can hastily scramble to develop a vaccine for the flu, but the mass murder mentality is different – it is seemingly undetectable until someone just explodes in this manner. And we wonder when the next one will occur.
Is there any hope, either for the dead or for the sickness that leads to this type of tragedy?
Yes. The Bible speaks of a time, not too far away, when it is promised that "the dead will hear the voice of God; and those who hear will live" (John 5:25). Those who were cut down in these violent shootings; every victim of murder; everyone who has ever died—these will all be given life again with a chance to live in another world, the Kingdom of God. With each passing day, this time draws ever nearer.
There is hope, not just for those who died at Fort Hood; not just for the victims of Columbine and Virginia Tech and the countless other school shootings, but for every single human being in this world. The hope that lies in the coming Kingdom of God is not only a promise of a resurrection of all mankind, but a way of life that will lead to healing of all the sicknesses that lead to death.
This hope—these promises—are sure, and they are coming quickly.
In the meantime, our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims of these senseless tragedies.
The details are still sparse on why Army psychiatrist Major Nidal Malik Hasan gunned down over 40 men and women—most of them fellow soldiers—just yesterday at Fort Hood, Texas. Thirteen men and women have had their lives cruelly and abruptly snuffed out by the actions of one man. We are grateful that the quick response of emergency medical and police teams prevented things from being much worse, but that thought brings little solace to the families directly robbed of fathers, husbands, sons, mothers, wives and daughters.
Our minds are instantly flooded with so many questions after such a tragic situation. After the answers are delivered on the specific details of the incident, we eventually migrate to the larger questions like how do we comfort the grieving? What hope can they – and all of us – grasp on to? Why do these things keep happening?
Names like Columbine, Red Lake, the Amish West Nickel Mines, Virginia Tech, Northern Illinois, are so ingrained in our national consciousness they all begin to blur together. I wish that we could call this an isolated incident—but of late, mass murders and serial killings have become topics we've just become used to hearing about. Just while I was editing this commentary my wife called with the news that another mass shooting is unfolding in Orlando, Florida. I don't even want to go to the news and see how this one turns out, but I know I have to.
We live in a world where massacres no longer surprise as they once did. One where unsuspecting lives can be ended in a matter of seconds by anyone with a cause and a gun. One where these same murderers can feel perfectly justified in and even enjoy their sprees of death.
This is our world. Scientists can hastily scramble to develop a vaccine for the flu, but the mass murder mentality is different – it is seemingly undetectable until someone just explodes in this manner. And we wonder when the next one will occur.
Is there any hope, either for the dead or for the sickness that leads to this type of tragedy?
Yes. The Bible speaks of a time, not too far away, when it is promised that "the dead will hear the voice of God; and those who hear will live" (John 5:25). Those who were cut down in these violent shootings; every victim of murder; everyone who has ever died—these will all be given life again with a chance to live in another world, the Kingdom of God. With each passing day, this time draws ever nearer.
There is hope, not just for those who died at Fort Hood; not just for the victims of Columbine and Virginia Tech and the countless other school shootings, but for every single human being in this world. The hope that lies in the coming Kingdom of God is not only a promise of a resurrection of all mankind, but a way of life that will lead to healing of all the sicknesses that lead to death.
This hope—these promises—are sure, and they are coming quickly.
In the meantime, our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims of these senseless tragedies.
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