It is impossible to put into words all of the events of the last 24 hours.  What was to be a fun escape at the movies becomes the largest massacre in U. S. history.  No one can imagine that.  We feel it physically at the revulsion at such an act.  We feel it emotionally when we try to connect with friends, relatives while putting ourselves in their place.  We feel it spiritually as we wonder what evil exists in our world.  Please do not misunderstand me.  Human beings do struggle with their emotional and mental health.  More than a few require help to simply get through a single day.  Yet do not miss how often those issues resolve themselves in expressions of evil.  Do not confuse the individual with the action but just hold that thought in mind.


My daughter and I want to see this film.  I noticed on Facebook how many people were at various showings of the movie around the area.  No one will ever be able to view that story the same way again.  Even being in my sixth decade allows me no special insight into how such carnage occurs.  I do know we forget or live in denial that similar actions happen across our planet each day without media attention.  What happens in Colorado or Syria is not uncommon.  Someday we may finally see that.  The problem is not with guns.  Our trouble is not with those who may suffer mental issues.  We live in a world running amok with ideas, pains, and unresolved hurts that wreck our health.  Theologians call this sin.  Maybe we would do well to recover our grasp of that.


Evil exists in many forms and fashions.  We think of it as something in Germany in the 1940's.  Maybe we want it isolated in some foreign nation today.  Evil is one of those drumbeats that continues no matter how it is disguised.  I see evil on a regular basis.  Maybe there are not weapons involved that tear other human beings apart but it is here.  Someone defined evil as the desire or intent to control another person in anyway required to take life from another.  We use words most times in church.  Hurts go unhealed until we become reflections of the evil remaining within us.  Perhaps we do not shoot someone but we will do what we can to injure another person for our selfish gain.  Those actions are as evil as those perpetrated last night in Colorado.


May we live long enough to see God bring good out of this horrible tragedy.  May we also spend time letting Him search our hearts for whatever evil seeks to dictate our journey.  Always remember the cross of Jesus tells us in plain terms just how blind evil makes us.  May we receive the eyes to see beyond that cross into the grace of God.


Bro. Trey