Some dumb preacher humor for you:
During the wedding rehearsal, the groom approached the preacher with an unusual offer: "Look, I'll give you $100 if you'll change the wedding vows. When you get to the part where I'm supposed to promise to 'love, honor, and obey' and 'be faithful to her forever,' I'd appreciate it if you would just leave that out." He passed the minister a $100 bill and walked away feeling satisfied.
On the day of the wedding, when it came time for the groom's vows, the preacher looked the young man in the eye and said: "Will you promise to prostrate yourself before her, obey her every command and wish, serve her breakfast in bed every morning of your life, and swear eternally before God and your lovely wife that you will not ever even look at another woman, as long as you both shall live?"
The groom gulped and looked around, and said in a tiny voice, "Yes," then he leaned toward the preacher and hissed: "I thought we had a deal."
The preacher put a $100 bill into the groom's hand and whispered: "She made me a better offer."
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Mothers of Monsters
It is easy to look at deranged behavior, such as that of the killer in the recent Arizona shootings, and label the person as a monster. And no doubt, what he's done is a monstrosity. As far as how everything pans out with bad intentions or mental illnesses, I'm not going to attempt to sort all that out. It's in God's hands.
But I was thinking about how we as Christians should respond to the situation. It's easy to pray for our "enemy", if by "enemy", we mean someone who annoys us. It's completely different to think about praying compassionately for someone who murdered our child. It's a good thing that God was good enough to love those who murdered his son, because otherwise we would have no hope.
I found an interesting article, talking about how Jared Loughner's parents have been reacting to the situation. Namely, with incredible grief and regret. Hindsight is always 20/20. I don't have any idea what the situation was like growing up in their household, but no doubt they probably feel love for their son, they feel humiliation over what he's done, and they feel great guilt for not being able to have seen this coming and prevented it.
Here is the article.
What I found especially interesting is how other parents of killers are reaching out to them. Even "monsters" have mothers.
I think this situation provides us with a reminder of our responsibility to seek and save the lost. Anyone can respond with hate for a killer, but I wonder how many will respond with loving concern for his soul. I don't diminish the suffering of those who've been injured and murdered. They certainly need our prayers, sympathy, and support. But in all of this, we should be praying for God's presence. To comfort the afflicted, and to reach out to the lost. And often, God seems to prefer being present through imperfect vessels like us.
I will be prayerful that Christians can be around to help the families, but also to help the family of the killer, as well as the man himself.
If there is anyone left who reads this blog, I'm curious what you think about this situation. Hearing from the mothers of people like this offers a pretty different perspective. Christ's law of love should be in effect in this situation, as in every situation. What does this look like here?
But I was thinking about how we as Christians should respond to the situation. It's easy to pray for our "enemy", if by "enemy", we mean someone who annoys us. It's completely different to think about praying compassionately for someone who murdered our child. It's a good thing that God was good enough to love those who murdered his son, because otherwise we would have no hope.
I found an interesting article, talking about how Jared Loughner's parents have been reacting to the situation. Namely, with incredible grief and regret. Hindsight is always 20/20. I don't have any idea what the situation was like growing up in their household, but no doubt they probably feel love for their son, they feel humiliation over what he's done, and they feel great guilt for not being able to have seen this coming and prevented it.
Here is the article.
What I found especially interesting is how other parents of killers are reaching out to them. Even "monsters" have mothers.
I think this situation provides us with a reminder of our responsibility to seek and save the lost. Anyone can respond with hate for a killer, but I wonder how many will respond with loving concern for his soul. I don't diminish the suffering of those who've been injured and murdered. They certainly need our prayers, sympathy, and support. But in all of this, we should be praying for God's presence. To comfort the afflicted, and to reach out to the lost. And often, God seems to prefer being present through imperfect vessels like us.
I will be prayerful that Christians can be around to help the families, but also to help the family of the killer, as well as the man himself.
If there is anyone left who reads this blog, I'm curious what you think about this situation. Hearing from the mothers of people like this offers a pretty different perspective. Christ's law of love should be in effect in this situation, as in every situation. What does this look like here?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)