How you assess this past week is a matter of perspective. For my family, it began by celebrating 36 years of marriage and included a long, necessary, but enjoyable road trip. Several of our friends have likewise celebrated anniversaries, with many more observing birthdays, graduations, and a number of fruitful ministries unto the Lord.
But the joys of the week have been punctuated by stark reminders of the dark, fallen world in which we live. Like others across the Southern Baptist faith family, I mourn the sin exposed in the independent investigation conducted by Guidepost Solutions of the Executive Committee’s response to reports of abuse within SBC ministries.
I was just beginning to sort through this data dump when the Uvalde school shooting occurred. At least twenty-one persons killed, including nineteen children, with many additional injured! Sad, horrific even. Again!
And, not in the public media but common in my personal newsfeed, I have a number of friends and colleagues who are currently experience their own dark seasons. Believers all, they continue to proclaim the greatness of our Lord even as their hearts grow heavy.
I could easily yield to the darkness. After all, darkness is the natural state of the fallen heart. I might give up on my faith family, ignoring the many godly friends and colleagues whose faithfulness to the Savior brings Him great glory. I could shout out in anger those whose political preferences many believe led to this and other mass shootings. I could cry out, “Lord, where are you in all this? Has the darkness overcome?”
Or…
Or I could mediate on the words of John concerning our Lord in John 1:4-5. He says, “In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
John, the eldest surviving of Jesus’ apostles, having seen more than his share of darkness, says with confidence, “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome!”
With you I mourn over those hurt and abused under any circumstance, but especially those hurt by or though persons representing the church of Jesus Christ! I grieve the loss of life in Uvalde and places around the world as evil appears to advance unrestrained. And I weep as I continue praying for my friends and their families.
I don’t have answers to rectifying any of the matters described above, but let us together trust the Lord who does. The one who shines in the darkness will lead His followers. We simply need to follow Him.