The attempted assassination of Donald Trump, the carnage that ensued, and the calls of our leaders for calm reminded me of this passage from M. Scott Peck in his book, "The Road Less Traveled," talking about evil done by humans:
It is strangely ineffective as a social force. I myself have witnessed evil in action, viciously attacking and effectively destroying the spirits and minds of dozens of children. But evil backfires in the big picture of human evolution. For every soul it destroys—and there are many—it is instrumental in the salvation of others. Unwittingly, evil serves as a beacon to warn others away from its own shoals. Because most of us have been graced by an almost instinctive sense of horror at the outrageousness of evil, when we recognize its presence, our own personalities are honed by the awareness of its existence. Our consciousness of it is a signal to purify ourselves. It was evil, for instance, that raised Christ to the cross, thereby enabling us to see him from afar.
Today we are horrified by human evil and what it wrought on July 13. But all of us, on both sides of the aisle and in between, should consider this a signal to repent and purify ourselves. We have allowed the sin of disunity to continue too long.
Unity does not mean uniformity. We can disagree and be different from each other and still get along. But we have allowed disunity to rupture relationships of all kinds and to paint those who oppose us as irrevocably evil. Yet we can all respect the values of the firefighter in the audience, Corey Comperatore, who died shielding his family. Do his political views matter now? Of course not. We may not be uniform in our opinions, but we can be united in the things that matter most.
If we claim to be Christians, if we claim to be God's children, now is a time that we must - MUST - listen to, ponder, and implement every word of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount about loving our enemies. Jesus says in Matthew 5:43-48 (NIV).
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’' But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect."
Are we truly the children of our Father in heaven? Then we need to get busy loving our enemies and praying for those who persecute us. Honestly, I have a lot of repenting and praying ahead of me.
I pray that this tragic event will be the catalyst for a new spirit in homes, churches, cities, states, our country, and even the world.
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