Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die.
Romans 5:7
I don’t typically write on polarizing issues in the news. Especially those involving seeming belief based motivations or those that enrage the gun debate.
Both are polarizing issues on their own without combining them in a hateful act.
As with any situation like this most recent shooting in Oregon, over the coming weeks we will find out about the boy’s troubled life. The father has already come out and decried guns. Victims have begun to tell their stories of the boy asking about their beliefs.
Regardless of the motivations or the tool used, this has a very simple basis .. evil. Evil does exist in this world, make no mistake.
We are assailed daily by the images of this evil and to a greater or lesser extent touched by it either directly or indirectly.
The old saying about the world being made up of three types of people; sheep, wolves and sheep dogs is quite true.
And while we need more sheep dogs these days we also need to better understand the wolves (the sheep will keep to themselves).
I have never seen a gun, a knife, a bat or any other weapon get up of its own accord and attack an innocent person. Yet I have seen wolves attack the innocent simply because they could.
Yes, some are hurting people who need us reaching out to them to help them encounter life without the need to react to the rejection they may feel. But, I submit that these people are often a byproduct of their treatment by other wolves. The truly evil ones. Those who do mental and emotional damage while the world just stands by and does nothing. These people are alone and have no where to turn.. Thus, they turn inward and the hurt makes the evil just grow.
I was taught at an early age to stand up for those who could not stand up for themselves. To defend the defenseless. My father was a huge proponent of helping others. I learned that defending people was not just a physical act, but most often an act of simple kindness. Of making others feel loved, cared about and interested in.
Yes, I have verbally and physically defended others and not always to my benefit. I have been shunned for taking a stance for others. I have been laughed at, ridiculed, and have most assuredly lost stature in business settings for it. But I do not believe I have ever faltered to do the right thing and I know I have never felt like it was to my spiritual detriment.
We will learn more and more about the people involved in this most recent incident. We will learn about possible motives, about possible missed opportunities, about the victims, the heroes and the polarizing elements of tools, torment and finally the totality of it all.
What will we be left with after it all? People needing us to be willing, prior to the violence, to die for one another. Not in the physical sense but in the proverbial sense. To lay part of our life down and stand up for others. To love on them and make them feel special and not alone in this very evil world. For more and more sheep to become sheep dogs to keep the wolves at bay. To stand shoulder to shoulder together against the evil and to truly change the world.
If you stand for nothing you’ll fall for anything.
