The shooting that took the lives of twenty-seven people in a church in Sutherland, Texas last weekend rocked our communities, our state, and our world. Our minds and hearts cannot begin to understand the evil that is all around us and is able to suddenly shatter our world. In one split second our life as we know it is shattered and we live in a state of shock.
This shooting takes me back to the Amish school shooting in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania. A neighborhood gunman, who was a Dad and friend, went into an Amish schoolhouse and shot and killed five girls, wounding five more. The evil of this kind of violence invades our safe neighborhoods and leaves us with more questions than answers.
The question that is front and center very often is, where is God in the midst of this evil?
A simple answer is God is everywhere. All the time. Now, I know we want an answer that makes more sense or brings more comfort but the truth is evil never makes sense! Evil has been rearing its ugly head since the beginning of time when evil came in the form of a serpent. He convinced Eve to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The effects of this evil had eternal consequences for all of us. It was the beginning of the human experience of questioning God.
Where was God in the garden? After Adam and Eve took of the fruit from the tree, they suddenly realized something very bad just happened. We could ask, “Where was God and why didn’t he intervene?”
My question though is, “Why should He?”
He was very clear with His instructions to Adam and Eve about how to live their lives and gave them the ability to make decisions. Just as God created gravity, He created man with the ability to choose. He gave each of us a will. Still, we ask where is God anytime bad things happen? God is everywhere all the time.
Knowing God is everywhere does not give us comfort unless we believe in the fact that God is with us. The opposite of God is everywhere would be that God is nowhere or nonexistent, which would mean there is no God. If we do not believe there is a God then the question of where is God is nonexistent.
But, if we believe God is everywhere then we turn to Him and find comfort in all of our troubles.
I have experienced tragedy in a number of forms and as I look back I can truly say where it is the darkest, God is there. We can either turn to Him in our time of greatest trouble or we can choose to run from Him like Adam and Eve did when they tried to hide.
Why do we try to hide? Is it because we’re surprised by the evil we’re faced with, the bad decision we’ve made, or the pain we’re experiencing which we think is unfair? Running from Him only adds pain and sorrow but running to Him brings help and comfort.
Evil is real.
Evil has no boundaries. Evil always has been and always will be a part of life as we know it on planet earth. What is greater than evil is the goodness and kindness of people responding to the tragedies that evil brings.
Goodness is found in the hearts of people who care for those who are deeply wounded. The reports of goodness from friends, neighbors, and strangers continue to be reported in the aftermath of the shootings.
Goodness is greater than evil and brings healing to the places evil has shattered.
So what is greater? Evil or goodness? Evil can be stopped but goodness marches on and continues to give hope to the hopeless, healing to the hurting, and help to the helpless.
All of us are capable to bring goodness in times of great tragedy. Goodness comes in many forms and always connects human hearts. In the midst of evil, people hold hands with strangers and connect with their tragedy. This is bearing one another’s burdens and fulfill the commands of Christ.
The goodness we extend comes from God in us. He is in the hearts of people everywhere. But in the same way, evil can exist in our hearts and because of that, bad things will happen.
Tragedy, however, doesn’t mean God wasn’t there. God is everywhere all the time. We just have to believe.
