While on our annual pilgrimage to the UK to spend time with our #linksfamily, we were watching the tele when reports of the Manchester bombing at the Ariana Grande concert started rolling in. There was pretty much non-stop coverage for the next several days, and the news was and still is heartbreaking. To make matters worse, there have been more attacks since we've been home.
I literally couldn't sleep thinking about teenage kids being the focus of a terrorist attack. What a cowardly act. How could anyone believe they were participating in a righteous act by blowing up an 8 year old at a concert? My sense of justice welled up, and I started thinking someone needs to pay. We can't let them get away with this.
My sleeplessness allowed me to see the sunrise at which point I decided to do something constructive with my thoughts. I went to my daily devotional, spent some time in prayer and then dug into the Center Church book I've been working my way through. I found this...
"The righteous are willing to disadvantage themselves to advantage the community; the wicked are willing to disadvantage the community to advantage themselves." - Bruce Waltke, OT scholar
It is incredibly sad to me that suicide bombers consider themselves righteous and holy. While "cleansing the world" from impurity, they believe they are earning a great reward for themselves. Jesus on the other hand cleansed the world by sacrificing only himself. True love lays down His life for His friends. That laying down is what paves the way to purity.
This is what sets us apart as Christians. As much as I want to rise up and fight something so this doesn't happen again, I realized our biggest fight is to continually live according to what Waltke calls righteousness...disadvantaging ourselves to advantage the community.
A week after the attack, we had tickets to a huge Christian music festival in the UK. The terrorist attack made us think about the possible consequences. Would this be a target for other terrorists wanting to purify the world from people like us? Our response was that we weren't going to let the fear of what might happen rob us of gathering with our brothers and sisters.
Beyond that, there's never been a more important time for Christ-followers to live according to the teaching of Jesus. Love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength...and love our neighbor as ourself. We are here to make our fallen world better. We are here to demonstrate love, hope and courage.
For most of us, fighting terrorism will have nothing to do with military action or police activity. Most of us won't have a say in the politics that responds to these atrocities. For most of us, our biggest opportunity is to retaliate righteously - which is continuing to disadvantage ourselves in order to advantage those around us. That sets us apart. That makes a difference. That will (little by little) change the world.
We are praying for our friends across the pond, and we are inspired by how they have stood strong in the face of terror and continue to live out love and unity. I'm glad we had the honor of being in country to experience what they were experiencing. If not, this may have seemed like another event a long way away, but being closer by allowed me to wrestle.
I pray that wrestling will lead us to righteous retaliation that continues to compel us toward living such good lives in our fallen world that people see a reason to consider Jesus.