I’ve been continuing to think about the recent school shooting, and more specifically how to respond to such an atrocity. I think what we “do” in response to such an event is less important, in the grand scheme of life, than what we believe in response to the event. For example, some beliefs about this tragedy might be:
None of those victims deserved to die.
Guns are bad.
Schools are not safe.
God should have stopped this from happening.
Some of the victims must have deserved to die.
God allowed this to happen.
God is bad.
God is good.
God is distant.
I am not going to support or refute any of these potential responses, nor is my intention to present the model response. I hope to explain my own understanding of who God is, because a large majority of the questions asked after a tragedy revolve around God. I find it interesting that an event of such magnitude with such great loss does tend to rouse within us very strong and distinct views about other people, about our culture, about ourselves, and about God. Those views, however, are not simply born from hearing of or witnessing a tragic event. Our views may be affected over time by such events, but our immediate response is more likely born from the views that we held prior to the event itself.
In my last blog, I started to unpack my own beliefs about God. What I realized in thinking through my response to the recent school shooting is that I believe that God is good. I hope that this does not sound trite. I do not hold this belief without challenge or circumstances that beg me to doubt, in my own life and in the lives of my family and friends. Despite many apparent indications of the contrary, I really do believe that God is good. One of the key foundations of what I believe has been the Bible itself, God’s word to us. God’s word is a relationship builder. It’s not a self-help book, though it can be used to help oneself. It is not a rule book, though there are laws and rules laid out in it. It’s not simply a history book, though there is a lot of history found in the Bible. As a whole, the Bible tells a story, and the point of that story is God’s covenant with his people and His unconditional, undying love for His people. The intent is that we would know who God is, and not only that we would know who God is but that we would know Him.
God tells us this in Jeremiah 9:23-24:
This is what the Lord says: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom or the strong man boast in his strength or the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,” declares the Lord.
If we know God, and we know that he delights in and pursues kindness, justice and righteousness, it’s hard to blame God when tragedies occur. It doesn’t mean that we know the answers. I don’t know all the answers, but I do know this God. And in knowing Him, I know that he’s not vengeful, he’s just. I know that he’s not cruel, he’s kind. I know that he’s not evil, he’s righteous. And because I know those things, I’m comforted when there are times of suffering or questions that I can’t answer. I think in those moments, when I don’t understand, it is the heart of man that is hard to trust. I know who God is. And the God that I know is good.
I don't want to ignore the reality of unanswered questions, but this is my starting point. In the spirit of my blog's new headliner quote, I do intend to continue pursuing the discomfort of thought as I unpack my thoughts about why God allowed something like the Sandy Hook Elementary shootings to occur.
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