Facing Death

Last week there was yet another mass shooting — this time a mosque in New Zealand. The last I saw 49 people died.

We have a routine down for these things — a shooting happens. We act shocked. We mourn and ask the deep question — why? We try to make sense of it. We try to offer an explanation that will make sense. We try to find a scapegoat that we can pin it on — someone who we can put the guilt on, so that they can be driven out and with them the sin of a mass shooting. And then after all of that…we distract ourselves so we can return to “normal,” — whatever that is. This is our normal now.

I don’t know about you — but I’m sick of this normal.

I’m tired of the excuses. I’m tired of the shock. I’m tired of the trying to make sense of it. I’m tired of trying to come up with a reasonable explanation. I’m tired of identifying a scapegoat. I’m tired of the distraction to go back to some fantasy “normal” that never really existed in the first place.

When a mass shoot happens there are no good explanations. When people are killed while they worship, there are no good reasons. It’s not just a mental illness of an individual we are dealing with. It if was, we could easily fix this.

Instead we are dealing with much more difficult challenges. We are dealing with evil hatred. There is nothing else to call it when someone goes into a holy place and guns down people who greet you in peace — who are worshiping God peacefully.