I remember asking the same question before I was a Christian and whenever anything tragic happened on the news. Now that I am a Christian and I know God more intimately, I still ask "Why?" When I think of the Holocaust, continued genocide in certain parts of the world, September 11th, Columbine, VT shootings, and other events such as these, I pray but I still ask, "Why? Why so much suffering?" I know that many others have asked the same exact question. It is hard to get our minds around tragedy on such a large scale. But I trust that God has a plan and purpose for all things (Jeremiah 29:11) and he will bring about good even in the face of bad circumstances (Romans 8:28).
I studied psychology in graduate school for many years and nearly completed a Ph.D before I decided to stay home with my children. In all my years of study, I never came across a satisfying answer to the everlasting question of why/ how one person (or persons) can inflict such devastation upon other people. Some people are psychopaths or they hurt so badly themselves they want to hurt others in turn. Some people are delusional and truly do not know what they do. . . There are numerous other ways to spin a psychological answer: trace it back to roots of abuse in early childhood, neurological processes that have gone awry, etc. Yet, none sufficiently answer the cause and reason for Evil in the world. After studying the Bible in depth and growing in my spiritual walk, I will have to say that for me, there is no other way to fully explain evil except to take the Bible by its' word -- as the truth.
What I believe is that God is a God of love, hope, and light. I do not believe that God ever intended to have his creation living in a world with so much evil and sin. The Garden of Eden was a perfect and sublime place. Our ancient ancestors basked in the glory of God in all His goodness. Yet, Adam and Eve disobeyed God when he tried to protect them and forbade them to eat the fruit. They took a bite out of that forbidden apple and they fell from grace. Sin and evil entered the world as a result.
As humans, I think we like to rank sin, some being worse than others. Murder and killing are high up there on the worse sins list. Everyone will agree that those are terrible, immoral things. I think that is why everyone is so appalled and angry at the events today in Newtown, CT. What the shooter did was undeniably awful! His responsibility is not to be minimized, nor the pain all those families are experiencing. But truly, we often forget that we are all sinners and fall short of God's righteousness (Romans 3:23). We may not murder or kill, we may not steal, we may not commit adultery, but we are all imperfect. We all get prideful at times. We all lose our patience or get angry for the wrong reasons. We all covet or lust after what we cannot or should not have. We get discontented. That is why we are all in need of a personal Savior, Jesus.
Even if we may not have been personally impacted by the events at Sandy Hook Elementary, we have all experienced personal pain, suffering, loss, and hurt in our lives. We all have asked the same questions time and time again, "Why did this happen to me?" Why miscarriages, death of loved ones, life threatening diseases, painful divorces, loss of jobs? We may not ever know the specific reasons for each individual case, but the root cause is this fallen world. God's answer will be the same each time, "Come to me." He says, "Believe in my son, Jesus, whom I sent to you." Not only did Jesus atone for our past, present, and future sins, but He saves us from this fallen world. Believe in the Lord, Jesus, and we shall have eternal life (John 3:26). Believe in Him and one day we shall again walk alongside our Lord without pain, suffering, and heartache known in this world. He is the only one who can truly heal our hearts and minds after pain and suffering. He is our Savior, Wonderful Counselor, Prince of Peace, Healer, and so much more. May the Lord be with those families suffering from today's tragedy -- may He grant them comfort and supernatural peace. And may he be with you, in your hearts, as we approach the day of his birth, Christmas. Even in the midst of tragedy, God is still ever present. He reveals himself in the lives of all those people who pray, who reach out to help those who are in most need. He is in the hearts of family, friends, and strangers. You just have to open your eyes, see, and Believe. God bless.
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