Let's Stay Rational in Spite of the Grief

A final round of funeral services was held yesterday for the last of the victims of last week's killing spree at Sandy Hook Elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.

This attack was so heinous and senseless that it defies any rational explanation. What snaps inside a human being to bring him to perform such a depraved, evil act?  I doubt anyone can answer that question.

Twenty families were forced to live every parent's worst nightmare: receiving the news that their child had been murdered. Six adults at the school were also killed by the deranged gunman.

This is a senseless crime that forces each of us to take stock of our priorities. It reminds us that life is a fragile gift. It should cause us to hold our children a little closer, and to more earnestly appreciate the blessing of having our loved ones alive, healthy and near to us.
 
The people of Newtown need our prayers for healing, for comfort, and for the capacity to forgive and move on. The residents of this community have been emotionally shattered, and many of of them will never fully recover.

I cannot imagine how they must feel. I wish these wounded people could be left in peace to deal with the awful sorrow they must bear. I wish the liberal media would leave them alone, instead of using them as political pawns to advance another round of attacks on the Second Amendment.

American leftists are playing their usual game of "never wasting a crisis." They are callously exploiting the nation's grief over the Sandy Hook massacre to advance their anti-gun political agenda while people's emotions are raw.

It is important to remain logical and remember that it was a sick, evil person who killed those innocent victims.

It was a madman who murdered those children; a young man who was deeply mentally disturbed, and somehow failed to receive the psychiatric help he needed that might have prevented this awful tragedy.

Restricting the constitutional rights of law-abiding American citizens will not bring back the victims of Sandy Hook, nor will it prevent future madmen from committing terrible crimes.

Better processes for diagnosing and treating the mentally ill might have made a difference in this instance. A few trained and armed staff members at the school could have radically changed the outcome of this attack.

We live in a fallen world. There will always be evil people with evil intentions. We all need to take responsibility for preparing to defend ourselves against unexpected threats.

The police cannot be everywhere. As long as there are sinful people with murderous notions, there will be occasions when a law-abiding armed citizen may be all that stands between an innocent victim and a deranged attacker.

I wish this were not so. I wish we could just declare every public area a gun-free zone and know that our children would be safe. Unfortunately, this is a dangerous delusion that leaves law-abiding citizens defenseless against criminals who will always be armed.

A person intent on evil does not respect gun laws, or gun-free zones. All a gun-free zone does is advertise to criminals - "Come on in! We are defenseless here."

Again, I wish this were not so. I wish we lived in a kinder, gentler world. But we have to contend with the sad reality that there will always be evil perpetrators in this world, and they must be opposed with force. 

It is important that we understand and acknowledge hard truths, such as this simple fact recently declared by National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre: "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun."

My Birthday Trip to the Emergency Room

I've had better days...and way better birthdays...but all has ended well, and I am thankful for that!

A gut-wrenching pain on the left side of my abdomen had me feeling pretty queasy as I laid around the house on the Friday afternoon after Thanksgiving. Later that evening my mind finally opened the email that my body had been sending all day long: "Go to the hospital!"

Please allow me to share some observations I made during this experience.

1. ER personnel don't give you much respect when you show up with a tummy ache on the day after Thanksgiving.

2. Apparently the medical staff uses a tag-team approach to weed out bogus stories from patients who may be "faking it" to get pain medications.

3. If you can successfully give a consistent detailed account of your symptoms, and circumstances, to at least five different inquisitors, eventually someone will start to believe you might be legit and order some kind of test.

4. I'm not sure how all the staff at the ER gets to work every night, since few of them appeared old enough to hold a driver's license.

5. I do not understand how the stuff they make you drink for a CAT scan does any good since I truly believe I peed it out as fast as I drank it.

6. ALWAYS make sure you know where the bathroom is when they move you to a new location.

7. I wish everything in my life was as easy as getting a CAT scan.

8. After the doctor gets test results showing that your gall bladder is a hideous, oozing, swollen, infected time-bomb, you get a lot more street cred with the ER crowd. AND you finally get your pain meds!

9. Once you get your pain meds, life is beautiful.

10. You sure have to sign a lot of papers in the hospital.

11. My wife is going to have to jump through a lot of hoops at home to continue giving me the same level of TLC I received from the nursing staff. The challenge will be good for her.

12. I started to get concerned as I was being prepped for surgery, because every time they moved me to a new location nobody knew what was going on. They all kept asking me who I was and what I was there for. Shouldn't they know? 60 Minutes should investigate this.

13. Everybody wanted to know when my birthday was, but nobody bothered to get me a present or a piece of cake.
 
14. I could have enjoyed my nap after surgery more if nurses had stopped waking me up all the time.

15. Hospital food is a lot better these days, at least at St. Francis.

16. I want a set of those leg-squeezing massage things to take home.

17. I don't care how many cable channels there are, there is still nothing to watch at 3 a.m.

18. It is a lot more fun getting ready to go home if the doctor isn't telling you about something else that showed up on your CAT scan.

19. I suppose it really is good news that they happened to see a teeny spot in my bladder, since whatever it may be is small and easy to deal with.

20. When the doctor says, "They'll just slip a scope up your urinary tract and take care of that little problem," with a calm reassuring smile, it still makes me pucker up.

21. The colonoscopy they've been nagging me about for 8 years seems a lot less intimidating now.

22. The only way to truly keep yourself from lifting more than 15 pounds after surgery is to have your arms strapped to your side and walk around like a mummy for 14 days. You cannot make yourself remember not to pick things up. It is just too automatic.

23. While recuperating at home after gall bladder surgery, avoid watching old re-runs of "Everybody Loves Raymond" - especially if it is an episode you haven't seen before.

Feeling Empty Inside?

The meaning of life?

That question has kept philosophers busy for centuries. Lots of people think they have an answer. The world is full of religious ideas and "feel good" pop psychology.

Humanists will tell you that you're here to please yourself - that man is the ultimate authority - that there is no God to be bothered with.

You can hobnob with spiritualists who will  channel for you and introduce you to a "familiar spirit" who will guide you into supernatural knowledge.  (More about this in the next issue of Demonic Deceptions Monthly).

You can join the Hollywood elite in Transcendental Meditation and spend hours contemplating your "divine nature" while chanting something deep and enlightening like "om."

You can join a cult (take your pick) and have some con-man turn your mind to mush while he cleans out your 401k.

WHAT MOST OF US DO

Or you could do what most people in America do. Shrug the whole thing off as "unknowable" and muddle through your life without a clue. This is a sad and empty way to live. Trust me, I know. I did it for 25 years.

If you haven't found your way to God's acquaintance yet, then you know what that empty feeling is. That feeling of wondering why you are here. The nagging ache that reminds you, in quiet moments, that you don't really know where you belong. The longing for some peace and assurance that there is purpose and meaning in this existence.

And most tragically, you could be one of the many people who come to the end of life, frightened and alone, and regretting the waste of it. How many people die without the assurance of heaven, and pass unto death fearful (and rightly so) of the unknown destiny that awaits them? How many people die without ever really knowing why they lived?

SOMETHING IS MISSING

Yet even in our spiritual darkness, we sense that something is missing. We observe the wonders of nature. We experience the passions of love. We marvel at the birth of a child. Experiences like these hint to us that there is more to life than this purely physical dimension. Most of us intuitively realize that there is a force beyond our understanding; a designer who holds the universe in order.

And this force, this designer, is the Almighty God who loves us! He is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He is the creator of all that is. And he has been planning since the beginning of time to bring each one of us into his eternal family. He has a purpose for every human life he created.

Even yours.

The Bible teaches us that we are God's special creation, made in his image. But because of  Adam's rebellion, spiritual death came upon the human race. As a result, we are born spiritually blind.  We are too selfish to live peacefully in this life; we are totally unfit for paradise. We cannot know God or comprehend his goodness and power.

That is why Jesus came. That is why he had to die. As God, he could offer the perfect sacrifice that would open the gates of heaven for us. His death paid the penalty for our sin. His later resurrection is our proof that he has the power to grant eternal life to all who will follow him.

As a man, he could show us how to live in the power of God's spirit. His life has introduced us to the living God whom we are too blind too see.

Jesus is the ultimate revelation of God's love. From his actions we can clearly see how much God loves us. From his teachings, we can begin to understand what God wants from us.

WHAT GOD REALLY WANTS

All God really wants you to do is give up. As in surrender. Give up your stubborn pride and admit that God is bigger than you. Admit that he ultimately is in control of all you have. Give up your life to him. Ask him to come into your heart and show you how to live. Admit that you have sinned against him (as have we all) and ask him to forgive you.

When you do this, wonderful things begin to happen. You are born again. God's spirit comes to live inside of  you, and that aching emptiness disappears. You will have passed from spiritual death to eternal life!

If you're honest enough to look inside of yourself and admit that you need God, then you can ask him into your life right now with a prayer like this:

"God, I have my doubts. Please heal my unbelief. I know I don't deserve your mercy, and I've spent my life sinning against you. Dear Jesus, I ask you to forgive me, cleanse me and make me whole. I want to know your love and your friendship. I want your love to fill the emptiness in my soul. I give you my life today, Lord, and I ask you to take me into your family. I want to live my life doing what you created me to do. I want to know that I am destined for heaven."

If you have given your heart to Jesus just now, you are a brand new creation, a new citizen of God's kingdom, and you have begun a wonderful new journey into eternal life. You need to find a friend who knows the Lord. He or she will be glad to help you understand the awesome gift you have just received. 

Your friend will help introduce you to the Bible and help you discover the friendship of fellow believers in a good church. Welcome to God's family!