Hope for the Heavy Heart

The week had started with trouble enough on its own. The temporal problems of this world were already weighing heavily on me, as they had been a lot here lately. At church, the worship team sang the song "Graves into Gardens" and in singing it, I was declaring it a prayer for some of the ugly situations that just seem to keep plaguing people around me and my own family. (If you haven't heard the song, I really recommend giving it a listen. Here's a link.)

But then Monday came. And with it, the news of another school shooting. This one at a Christian school in Nashville, perpetrated by a person who likely resented the school for taking a biblical stance on cultural issues. So she shot children and adults at that school, because somehow she felt that evil act of vengeance was her answer to anyone taking a stand against the destructive belief that she was something other than who God had created her to be.

"The Lord is near to the brokenhearted

and saves the crushed in spirit."

Psalm 34:18

Of course, since then, there's been a sickening outpouring from the media that has somehow twisted this heartbreaking story to frame this villain as if she were the victim. To try to reverse the roles of those whose lives she took that day as somehow guilty because they had a love for God and for His design is an immense perversion of justice. Not to mention, there was the usual politicization of it all, with everyone out there screaming at one another over social media posts about how their political stance would certainly fix this.

No it won't.

This isn't an issue that can be fixed by a politician or whatever policy they're pushing. And when we point to those things as the answers to all the problems, we're missing the actual point.

Sure, maybe some policies could provide hindrances to the carrying out of such evil, but they can never deter a human heart set on destruction. Those set on such evil will find a way -- a work around -- they always have and always will. If a person is of a intent to kill innocent people, there is clearly a complete disregard for human life. Everyday objects can be weaponized in an instant -- knives, baseball bats, shovels, vehicles, rocks -- the list goes on. The root of the issue isn't the weapon of choice, but a heart set on evil, a person making deals with the devil and denying the God of heaven and earth what He's due.

To do so is to invite His vengeance. The righteous wrath of a just God is not something I would not recommend igniting if you can avoid it. Our imperfect worldly justice pales in comparison to what awaits those who fail to follow Him.

Murder has long been against the law...yet throughout human history, there are those who still kill. It's a concept that's been around as long as humans and sin have been. It was written on the stone tablets of the ten commandments, but goes back even further than that. Moses fled Egypt out of fear of retributive justice after he had killed a man. Cain was cursed for killing his own brother. Countless other examples exist. Thou shalt not murder is a law that has been written on the hearts of mankind since the start. You can take the guns out of their hands, but not the hatred for fellow humans out of their hearts.

Sin is an ugly stain on the hearts of humankind...a stain that won't scrub out and can't be covered up by anything short of a Savior. But not just anything will work for this redemption our hearts so ache for. Only the One that God Himself sent to save us from our sins can save us. Only His Son.

Our society is selling us so very short when they say the answers lie in getting to do whatever you want, whenever you want, with whomever you want, without consequence. They push the idea that the way God designed things to work is just antiquated, and therefore outdated and unworthy of our attention. This lie is a plague far more sinister than the one that just shut society down for a few years. When we deny God His due place in our lives and allow His enemy, the devil -- the destroyer -- to have his influence over us, how can we expect anything less than depravity to rule and reign?

That depravity was on full display Monday and has been since. Just as that shooter thought the solution to what ailed her soul could be found apart from God, so the response to this incident has largely shown that people, both in and out of churches, seem to think the answer to the problem of evil can also be found separate from the Savior. Have we missed the point of the Gospel entirely? Can we not see our own innate need for a Savior? Have we become so wrapped up in our society that we've let its lies entangle us? We are to live our lives for the Lord as people set apart for His glory.

There are those who claim Christ, who will point at anything but Him as the answer to these types of tragedies. It's as if we feel that God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth is incapable of having answers for us as to how we ought to live here on earth. As if this is too hard for Him, and our lowly human selves have it all figured out! As if we feel His Word is insufficient to comfort our wounded souls and His Work on the cross falls short to save those souls. Indeed, I think this is the even greater tragedy of it all.

We fail to see Him for Who He is. We fail to see His Work for what it has done.

What He accomplished on the cross was enough. Jesus said so Himself, as he hung on the cross bearing the weight of our sin, of our very insufficiency, of our very real need for a Savior. "It is finished."

"Out of my distress I called on the Lord; the Lord answered me

and set me free. The Lord is on my side; I will not fear.

What can man do to me? The Lord is on my side as my helper;

I shall look in triumph on those who hate me.

It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man."

Psalm 118:5-8

We struggle so much to wrap our merely human minds around that fact. Probably because we're stuck here, in this broken world. A world still so very much in need of a Savior that still somehow simultaneously fails to see their own need for the very One they rebel so severely against.

He is enough for the hurting humans hearts. There is no political policy that can ever hope to remedy our sinful human condition like Christ alone can.

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort,

who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort

those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive

from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ."

2 Corinthians 1:3-5

It's only expected that our hearts be hurting after such an evil event. As a parent who teaches at a Christian school with an eerily similar name to the one in Nashville, this school shooting hit different. Our hearts were heavier for a loss that was further compounded by the fact that these people were killed, at least in part, for their faith...for believing the truth of God's Word and having the nerve to teach that truth to the next generation.

The Bible encourages us to mourn with those who mourn and to lament the hard happenings of this life. Jesus Himself wept. But in doing so, we must do as Christ did, and keep our eyes on the Father as our hope. Salvation can be found in none other and He sent His Spirit to be our Comforter. We must cling to that hope, that reassurance that can be found only in Him.

"He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away."

Revelation 21:4

Back to that song I referenced earlier. It starts out talking about how they searched the world but still couldn't be filled, but that the Lord came into their lives and through His love, their brokenness was put back together. It's about the realization that there really is nothing better than the Lord and how He sees us, despite our failures and flaws. It's about His mercy and grace finding us whether we're facing life's mountains or valleys. But, one of my favorite parts of the song talks about how the Lord is the only One who can exchange the broken things in our lives for the beautiful: mourning for dancing, beauty for ashes, shame for glory, graves for gardens, and more.

Sure, it's just a song. But its lyrics are symbolic of the deeper work Christ does in our lives after we invite Him in as our Lord and Savior. There is transformative work that takes place in which He really does turn our brokenness for beauty. The world neither wants to see nor acknowledge that fact. But those who believe in Him are being made ever more beautiful because of His redeeming work in their lives.

In this evil event, the killer was looking for a false transformation that the world had told her would fix what felt wrong with her. In her hurt, her hunt for the transformation that she so yearned for would likely have led her to the Lord if she had let it. Instead, the further she followed society's trail of lies, the more desperate she became, until she found herself shooting out the doors of a school so she could enter and take the innocent lives of people who believed God's truth instead of society's lies. The school she attacked undoubtedly operated out of a love for the Lord and a desire to see people live their lives from the transformative outpouring of such a love. And so she went after them for that.

Perhaps Pastor Chad Scruggs, the father of one of the murdered children said it best. Regarding the loss of his 9 year old daughter, he said, "Through tears we trust that she is in the arms of Jesus who will raise her to life once again."

Like him, we must cling to the hope found in the cross. We cling moreso to the hope that we have in the resurrected Christ, and that from such death and brokenness, He can bring life and beauty. We have in Him what the world only wishes they could offer its inhabitants: hope. Take heart. He truly has overcome. And while we're still here on earth, amongst such tragedy, He is working on turning these awful broken things into something beautiful.

"I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have peace.

In this world you will have trouble. But take heart!

I have overcome the world."

John 16:33