This past week evil slaughtered nineteen 4th grade students and two teachers at a school in Texas. Sadly it’s not the first school shooting and won’t be the last. While politicians and citizens, school administrators and staff, students and parents struggle to navigate their grief, fear, and outrage, we, as Christ-followers, must confront our own failures.
That may seem harsh. What could a Christ-follower from another state or another country have done to alter the outcome in Texas? Admittedly, not much. But evil exists in all communities. Jesus instructed us to pray for deliverance from evil, and Paul, in Romans, writes, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Romans 12:21, NASB95)
I don’t know how the faith community interacted with the Texas shooter. But it seems that no one saw the struggles of the person or noticed the darkness building around him. What if sometime earlier he was loved instead of shunned? Maybe some tried and were refused; we don’t know. But what if…
We have those opportunities around us all the time. Society, culture, and religion are keen to determine who is in and out. They love those who toe the line and ostracize, shun, and ignore those that don’t. Cancel culture is not a new phenomenon. We as Christ-followers must break out of that desire to reward/reject folks and instead value all – even those that show a bent towards evil. But let’s go back a step. How do we overcome evil with good?
The grinding stones of evil are anger, injustice, and fear. When a person is ground down by those things, then expressions of evil are not far behind. A cycle develops that feeds upon itself as acting out creates more anger, felt injustice, and fear. We overcome evil with good by breaking that cycle with undeserved love and relationship – the earlier, the better.
Look around you, especially at the children. Who is the loner? Who seems to shy away from interaction? Who is acting out by cutting themselves, embracing darkness, bullying, or being bullied? Who dares you to get close by using vile language? Those are the ones being ground between the wheels of anger, injustice, and fear. Those are the ones we need to reach long before they take a life.
We can argue about the role of guns, the need for more security at schools, and the failures of various systems. But the real problem, the real cause, is a failure to love. If there is one thing we as Christ-followers should know and understand, it is what real love looks like. “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8, NASB95) So, let’s break the cycle by overcoming evil with good.
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