“The God of peace…”
“The gospel of peace…”
“Blessed are the peacemakers…”
(Heb 13:20; Eph 6:15; Matt 5:9)
I live in a small town in southeast Texas that became home to the 4th deadliest school shooting in America on May 18, 2018. That is, until we were bumped to 5th place by the school shooting in Uvalde. That day in my classroom, when I heard the news about the death toll in Uvalde, I felt numb. It’s my go-to reaction when I know that if I were allow myself to feel, I wouldn’t be able to bear the intensity of it.
Over the next two days, as I listened to the polarized political and cultural narrative unfold, I kept asking the Lord, “What are the right words in a time such as ours?” I wanted words that would bring people to silence. I wanted words that would cause people to stop pointing fingers and stop grasping at superficial and misguided solutions. And the words that kept repeating through my mind like a foghorn were, “…the Lord longs to be gracious to you…” (Is 30:18). But I didn’t want those words. I wanted answers. So I stubbornly decided to sit at the Lord’s feet until He gave them to me.
This morning during my devotional time, the Spirit spoke again, reiterating His perspective that seems so antithetical to ours— offering grace, compassion, and mercy when we are seeking retribution, vindication, and practical solutions. During the time of Jesus’ earthly ministry, the Jews understandably wanted Jesus to bring retribution to Rome, to vindicate centuries of wrong, and to give them practical solutions to their problems. But He gave them grace and truth instead, and He was killed. Because Jesus doesn’t give people what they want, He gives them what they need.
I’m not sure how much more tragedy lies ahead of us, what more God will have to allow to bring us to our knees in utter recognition that there is no answer, no fix, no practical solution other than His Son. Our wound is incurable by human standards. No doubt we will continue to try and put bandaids on our mortal moral wounds, no doubt we will continue to fracture ourselves into a thousand opposing perspectives. No doubt, the Lord who longs to be gracious to us will continue to give us grace and truth until the door is shut on “the year of the Lord’s favor,” and we face the maw of “the day of our God’s vengeance.”
Beloved, the Lord longs to be gracious to you. Accept that grace while there is still time.
(Is 61:1-3) The Spirit of the Lord GOD is on Me, because the LORD has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and freedom to the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor and the day of our God’s vengeance, to comfort all who mourn, to console the mourners in Zion—to give them a crown of beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and a garment of praise for a spirit of despair.
(Is 30:5-8) For thus the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, has said, "In repentance and rest you will be saved, In quietness and trust is your strength." But you were not willing, You said, 'No, we will flee on horses.' Therefore you will flee! You said, 'We will ride off on swift horses.' Therefore your pursuers will be swift! A thousand will flee at the threat of one; at the threat of five you will all flee, until you are left alone like a pole on a mountaintop, like a banner on a hill. Therefore the LORD longs to be gracious to you, And therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you. For the LORD is a God of justice; How blessed are all those who long for Him.
(Jer 17:5-8) This is what the LORD says: “Cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans, who rely on human strength and turn their hearts away from the LORD. They are like stunted shrubs in the desert, with no hope for the future. They will live in the barren wilderness, in an uninhabited salty land. But blessed are those who trust in the LORD and have made the LORD their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit.
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