“Take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.” (Ephesians 6:16 NIV)
Shields up. The horrific events in Buffalo and Uvalde fall into a long line of “never-again” unthinkables—yet they happened. People made a routine grocery run, but never made it home. Children went cheerfully, innocently, and carelessly to school, but then evil burst in to steal life and wreck families. The reasons why, and clean solutions for going forward are beyond our grasp. But as the people of Jesus, as people of hope, we choose to Believe. God sees. God cares. God has a plan.
Shields up. The mass shootings took place many miles from our home, but we felt the shockwave and we share in the grief and outrage. Evil launched brazen attacks, like a curtain of arrows flying across an ancient battlefield. The arrows came at us to cut us, to terrorize us, to divide us. Each razor-sharp tip aimed to bleed us of faith, to leave us empty and doubting. Where was God? Why didn’t he stop this? How could he allow children to go through this unthinkable?
Shields up. Our faith can extinguish the arrows flying at our hearts and minds.
Yes, swift action is called for. Reform and change—though complicated and imperfect—must come, to try to make sure this is the last Buffalo, the last Uvalde.
But it’s likely not the last such event, because the root of these horrors is not a legal loophole, a failure of law enforcement. The root is evil itself, with its disregard for life, acting out to steal, kill, and destroy. This has been the story since Adam and Eve left the Garden. Countless wars have claimed innocent life—including the one currently waged across the sea. Evil adults, in every century, abuse and violate and kill children. Until Jesus comes, evil remains unleashed in this world. Shields up.
Lifting our shields of faith is not mere sentiment or blind allegiance to an invisible God. We believe the world’s troubles stem from sin. We believe the way to be free from sin’s grip is through a relationship with Jesus. We believe our Jesus told us that in this world we would have trouble, but that we should take heart, because our Jesus has overcome the world.
We believe a day is coming when evil’s run will end, banished to the abyss. Come quickly, Lord Jesus—our shields are up, but each year you delay, we are tempted to let them slip.
In faith, we invite people to meet Jesus – who changes sinful hearts, liberating people to a new life, in a new dominion, under a good and great King.
In faith, we assert that there is one God who made all things. He is on his throne. Sovereign. Not rattled. He sees. He cares. He has a plan.
What is his plan. We cannot know.
When is he coming back? We cannot know.
So we live by faith.
Shields up.
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