Band-aid on Arterial Bleeding

It is hardly surprising that in the wake of the evil brought upon Virginia Tech that the issue of gun control has come up in a big way. However, I don't think the issue here is a problem with gun control laws (unless you want to talk about how the student were left unable to defend themselves from this murderer) but rather a people problem. There's no getting around this fact: there was something VERY wrong about the person that did this. There's also no getting around the fact that whether this person had guns or not, they were willing and capable (from the emotional/psychological side of things) of doing this act of great evil.

If you take away guns you know what you have? You still have people with problems that will find other ways and other implements for doing evil. You can try to regulate everything that could conceivably be used as a weapon but if you don't fix the problem that exists within the hearts of people then you will find you have people killing one another with bare hands.

But Charles, you might say, if he didn't have a gun and had to use a knife, for instance, maybe he wouldn't have been able to kill as many people. That's possible, but at the same time the real issue is not the number of people that he killed, it's the fact that he was killing people in the first place. On the other side of the coin, by the same hypothetical game it can be argued the maybe if one of the students in Norris Hall had been able to conceal carry a weapon on campus they would have been able to stop the killer and keep more people from being killed. We can play what-if games to the end of time but all of them revolve around trying to put a band-aid on arterial bleeding.

We want these band-aids because they're a lot more simple than trying to prevent the bleeding from the first place or at worst stopping the bleeding immediately when it starts. Slap some gun laws down, take away people's guns (or give them more guns in the interest of having people ready and able to oppose such killers), train police forces on the new regulations and call it done. But it doesn't actually fix the problem.

Fixing the problem requires much more than a band-aid. I don't know what set this troubled young man down the wrong path, but does it not strike you when after these things happen you find that these individuals are often branded as loners who are anti-social and hold people in such low regard? Anybody noticing a trend here? How often could this trend be reversed by people actually taking the time to love this person and make positive investments in their life? The problem is, that requires us to do more than sit here on the internet and cry out to our politicians to take away or give back our guns. It requires more than firing the latest scapegoat and replacing them with the next person. It requires people getting off their butts and actually getting involved in the lives of those around them. It involve Christians actually striving to show the love of Jesus to everyone around them and start seeing people the way Jesus sees them and love them the way Jesus loves them.

I'll be real honest and self-incriminating. Looking at my track record of showing real, genuine love to others around me, those words seem real hollow. But at the same time God has been working in my life a lot recently, things are changing, and this is one area that I hope I will continue to change and grow in.

As far as my stance on guns goes, I believe in having the right to defend myself and those around me and to be properly equipped (within reason) to do so. While it is presumptuous of me to start speculating with any degree of detail what I would have done in this or a similar situation I can say with confidence that there is no way that I could have sat by and done nothing in the midst of such carnage and evil. Preventing law-abiding citizens like myself (a service member and future commissioned officer no less) from taking the prudent precautions like owning and carrying a gun does not prevent crimes but instead prevents the possibility of them being properly equipped to potentially bring about an end to whatever threat is posed by someone like Monday's killer. But while it is my desire that carry laws for college campuses and such were to be changed, I do however realize much like the writer of Psalm 20 that it is not firearms that will win out at the end of the day.

"Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God."

Oh, God, Where Are You Now?

This is a question that I'm sure many in Blacksburg and around the nation are asking at this moment. In the wake of such evil many wonder how God could allow such a thing to happen, such horrific violence upon so many innocent. While it may not seem like it though, God was there.

He was there when Professor Librescu stood in the doorway to block the killer, allowing his students to try to escape through the windows; giving his life so that others might live. (In all the accounts I read of yesterday this is still the one that gets to me the most. "A greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." To have that kind of courage and love for others to be willing to sacrifice in such a manner; it sweeps me away)

He was there when Zach Petkewicz motivated his classmates to move a table to block the door of his classroom, preventing the killer from getting into the room and killing more people.

He was there when Derek O'Donnel, despite already being shot, worked with other students in his class to block the door so that the killer could not return to kill even more students.

He was there when police responded to the calls for help and proceded to secure the scene and get aid to those that were wounded.

He was there when doctors worked to save the lives of those who had been shot, not once, but for several as many as three or four times.

And He is here now, comforting those who are greiving from the horror of this evil brought upon us.

While free will exists, allowing man to do horrible things to each other, God is there in the midst of it all. In the end what man would do for evil, God will turn for His glory. And while we are completely incapable of fathoming how good can come out of something that brings such sorrow and sadness, we can trust that in all things God is sovereign, good, and just.

I don't know how God plans to work in all this, but it is my prayer that as He moves among His people others will come to know Him and the "peace that passes all understanding" that allows someone to face such horrors with confidence that "all things work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose."

It's Friday...

But Sunday's Coming...

Panic not, for it is all good...

Нужен Мне Лишь Ты - "All I Need is You"

A friend of mine was telling me about hearing a recording of Louie Giglio talking at Passion '07 about how when we get to heaven it's going to be a grand old party and it most likely will not be in English. So to find a video of the song "All I need is You" being done in Russian (a language I am studying in school) is really cool. When we get home we can all sing it together.

Hillsong Kiev-Нужен Мне Лишь Ты

"...and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father."
Phillipians 2:11