Last night as I hovered over my iPhone, receiving tweet after tweet in anticipation of Obama's speech, it became apparent that the military had killed Osama Bin Laden. The responses were varied, but the majority were overly celebratory. After Obama's speech the floodgates opened. Apparently fireworks went off as groups gathered across the country to celebrate the death.
The tweets were joyous. You'd think everyone's home team had just won the World Series. Rather, we were a nation celebrating death. And though the death was of a vile man, an evil man, a man that brought about death and destruction, he was still a man - made in God's image; and a man worth Christ dying on a tree.
I understand everyone will not agree with me. And my intent isn't to persuade you of your reaction(s) or stance(s), rather its just to voice where I am at in all of this.
In my opinion, a Christ follower's response on death is initial sadness, because I believe that God is the giver of life. And life is good.
The notion that America brought about God's will and justice seems a bit presumptuous to me as well. Assuming God did want OBL dead, couldn't God have willed OBL to catch pneumonia or fall into a crevasse and die? Why involve the Navy SEALS? Are we assuming that God's will and America's will are the same? Is God's justice and America's justice the same?
I surely hope not.
I seem to remember scripture warning us of placing our hopes and futures in the hands of governments, militaries, and men.
And if I'm correct, just after that warning, crowds gathered to celebrate the killing of men. (Good Friday was not even 2 weeks ago - I haven't forgotten the story just yet)
So how do we respond?
That's for you to wrestle with.
I will continue to wrestle with you.
My wants and desires are much like the populace. I will surely sleep better knowing a bad guy is gone. Then again, I can tend to be a bad guy from time to time. I'm glad my will is not God's and that my judgement isn't His either.
I'm glad that judgement doesn't define me and my life (today and into the future), but that the grace bought through the cross does. And I believe that the grace of the cross is mystically rooted in a type of unconditional love that we'll never quite understand. Its a type of grace that bought the sins of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, Atheists and Polytheists. This type of grace seeks out all and destroys the trappings of sin!
So in the end, does justice win?
Does love win?
Or perhaps, in God's infinite wisdom and "being love" do the 2 intermingle in a way that we cannot fathom?
Discuss...
Peace,
Ross
