How is one to interpret and deal with the out-rage of the past few hours in Ferguson? So many statements. So many more questions. So many interpretations and opinions.
I sit some 400 miles away. Yet, I sit with intense interest. Such upset is not a city-wide occasion. It affects humanity at the center nerve; people behaving poorly toward people.
Me? I would not have answers. I would have sympathy to all involved; both sides. With an extension of concern, I would also say that I have a love for all; both the injured and the injurers. Ferguson is a picture of man-gone-stressed.
Who started it? Who caused it? Who feeds it?
The media will name names and then we will create our own surmisings. Satan will go unnoticed and unnamed.
Man likes labels. We want names to go with our accusations. If we don't have accurate accounts, we'll make good guesses. This isn't productive.
Occasionally we can seem bent toward a good beef...or a fiery riot. But this isn't a battle with racism nor is it one of fanaticism. This is a picture of man being tricked by a source of power that confuses, misleads, sets the stage for turmoil, and then sneaks off unnoticed and unscathed. It is Satanic.
Satan exists to throw wrenches in man's relationships...with one another. He then backs out of the picture visibly; yet remains on the scene with his stirring influence.
We are not enemies of one another. Jesus knew this. He died on the Cross because man is so crossed up we find ourselves, at times, not knowing which end is up. Jesus didn't live and die to have cool VBS summers. He did it because man is an incurable mess unless someone divine breaks in and stops the bleeding....by God's own bleeding for His precious creation.
Emotions are running high. Our test, as children of God, is whether we can remain calm of heart and love those who are being injured as well as those who are doing the injuring...before, during, and after the murder of young Mr. Brown.
Sighing and crying won't make a dent in the civil unrest we are know seeing unfold before our very eyes. Leaning in upon the wonder of the One who died for all of us is our hope and our answer.
For the joy set before us, may we use these trying times to see just how serious we are at taking up our crosses and following Jesus into the world of turmoil in order to truly love those who have never experienced a deep and abiding interest in what they can be and who we know the good that they really are.
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