By nature,
I’m a “figure it out” sort of person. I like to find patterns with causes and
effects that explain why things happen. To me, cause and effect give meaning to
the universe. They give me a framework for understanding why things happen and
predicting what will happen next. Unfortunately, the universe doesn’t always
conform to my paradigm. Case in point: Sandy Hook Elementary.
Evil is
evil. There’s no accounting for it. There really is no deeper meaning, no
rationale. Breaking into an elementary school and gunning down 20 beautiful
little children is just evil. And as much as I want to make sense of it, there
is no sense to be made. Evil is senseless. I think trying to find a reason
cheapens the deaths of those babies, as though something could in any way
explain why they had to die. Nothing can explain that. There is no cause equal
to the effect of the murder of 26 human beings. There is evil in the world. It
is real. Bad things happen for no obvious reason.
This is why
I always come to back to Christianity. I know of no other belief system that
can account for the wickedness of human beings and still give me hope. The
Bible says that God originally made the world very good, and he made human
beings who could love each other and care for the planet. They were free to do
that because they trusted that there was a good God in control. But, Satan told
them that maybe God wasn’t as good as they thought. That idea appealed to them,
and they disobeyed their creator. The fundamental trust that made the world
turn was broken. Everything was broken. There was no reason good enough for
their disobedience. Nature still holds true to the third law of thermodynamics
“every action has an equal and opposite reaction.” Mankind is the aberration.
From the small “respectable” sins of gossip, lying, laziness, or greed to the
bigger one of murder, every act of wickedness bears the same stamp of nonsense.
Fortunately, that isn’t the end of
the story. While it might account for Adam Lanza, it doesn’t explain Dawn
Hochsprung. What is it that causes some people to commit senseless acts of
heroism? I can guarantee that none of those children ever did anything for her
that was equal to her dying for them. God is still God, and He is still good, even
though human beings have totally messed up. He devised the greatest rescue
mission the world has ever seen. God went under cover and became a man. He
submitted himself to living a life on the planet we deformed. He allowed us to
insult him, deceive him, abuse him, and murder him. The same way we insult,
deceive, abuse, and murder each other. And then he rose again. Being God meant
death could have no power over him. And he invites us; the gossips, the liars,
the greedy, and lazy, and the murderers to have that life, too. All he asks is
for us to trust what he says about who we are and who he is.
Because he never repaid evil for
evil, he disproved our cause and effect paradigm once and for all. All we’ve
done to him is evil, and he did the ultimate good for us. His sacrifice frees
us up to commit senseless acts of good, too. I don’t have to selfishly watch
out for my own interests any more. My God’s got my back. He proved it when he
died for me. If I have a sucky life, I don’t have to take it out on a roomful of
5 year olds. I can lie my life down for them instead. I don’t have to participate in the
destruction of the planet and its people. I can build it up instead.
