The New Life and YWAM Shootings

I woke up to news of the first Colorado shooting in Arvada. It was close to home, so to speak, since I live in the Denver metro area. As I taught Sunday School later in the day at my own church, I asked the person who said the prayer to remember the victims and their families of the Youth with a Mission shooting. Later, of course, we learned that there was a second shooting in Colorado Springs.

I haven't posted in this prayer blog for several months. Life. I've been through some of my own intensities and pressures and trials, and the blog did what it needed to do for me... get me back into prayer and trusting God again. So I quit posting in it.

But this morning, with a delayed start at work and new snow falling, I felt like taking the time to include the people involved in these tragedies in my prayers, and of writing about it. I guess it's sort of a response to what was just on the news that this young man, Matthew Murray, had posted hateful and violent posts on an anti-Christian forum. He was so full of hate.

He is not the only one. As I have read news articles on forums where reader comments are allowed, it's clear that there are immature and hateful people everywhere. Their comments are so snide, even to one another, even about the heroic security guard who shot the young man, even about the victims.

If I could step back and look at all of this, I feel like I would see Satan laughing in glee at the mayhem that he causes, even delighting that he has such influence that people quickly become mean and spiteful and petty and judgmental as they talk about it. There were people bitterly asking, where was God for all those people who were killed? What do they think about God now? And, I guess the Christians at New Life don't believe God will protect them because they clearly believed more in guns and had armed guards there.

They reminded me so much of the centurions who mocked the Savior as He hung on the cross.

There is so little understanding of God in the world, and of the nature of this life, and how hard it is and how much there is to overcome. This earthly existence is like a war zone. If you think of it that way, you realize that we have come into it at soldiers, and as such, we expect to get bloodied and bruised throughout our mortal journey. We don't make it through life on our own, we help and lift others and hope that, when we are too weak, someone will help and lift us.

People wonder if there even is a God and why He doesn't intervene. Well, we see what life is like with people who do not allow God to influence them. There MUST be a God because we are not left in that kind of misery and hell. He DOES intervene, as seen with the female security guard who was in the right place at the right time. And instead of leaping gleefully about taking out a bad guy, she genuinely expresses her compassion for his family. THAT is how I am reminded that God lives and that there are people who allow Him to touch their lives.

Very few people ever see my little posts on this blog, it's more for my personal journey and to occasionally share with a friend or with my sister. But I did want to write something filled with testimony and love, this morning.

I don't doubt that this young shooter, Matthew Murray, was mentally ill and I feel so bad for his family. Yes, I feel for his victims and for all those caught up in the fearful events and they will continue in my prayers for a long time. But let me pray first for this young man.

My brother works as a therapist in a men's prison and also works with troubled young sex offenders in a different facility. He is an amazing brother, by the way, a wonderful father, himself. A devoted son and a very caring brother. I visited with him Sunday evening, not necessarily about these shootings but about his work, his safety, and how he was doing, and of course, about his own young family. He had called to see how I was doing, which really touched me. You just realize that not everyone gets this kind of love and acceptance and support. Our society is collecting huge, huge problems and you wonder how it will ever end, what could ever be done? I told him I was proud of him, of the work that he is doing to give these young boys a chance to heal and grow before it's too late. What a difficult task but what a Godly mission.

It's all about the family, but it seems to me that it goes even beyond that. To where, I do not know.

My own childhood was full of despair. My mother was mentally ill but no one recognized it. My parents divorced when I was 16 and by the time I was 19, my mother was a homeless person. I raised my younger brothers off and on for 10 years, looked for our mother, looked after her when we would find her. Somehow, we all turned out all right, even to getting my mother off the street and having her with us for seven years before she died.

My brothers and sister are wonderful people, not without crushing burdens and challenges but with a certain compassion and strength and integrity and a witness of God's love. Two of my brothers and my sister served full-time missions for my church. Three of us have advanced college degrees or post-graduate work. We are not all "active" in our faith and church involvement but we are all believers. We look after each other and serve in our communities. It's only by the grace of God that we overcame some of our challenges and maintained our faith.

I don't know how one would deal with a mental illness that is full of violence and hatred such as what Matthew Murray must have suffered, and there is much that we will never know about this family. So much has happened to me in my own life, I simply would not want to judge. Who knows the burdens they have carried?

The pastor at New Life Church said something that struck me. I won't quote it directly, I'll paraphrase it with my own understanding. He said that oftentimes, when this happens in a church family, people outside think that it's because they are doing something WRONG. The opposite is true. Whenever people are laboring effectively for God, they come under attack spiritually.

All of those beautiful people who were shot or who were killed... they were full of joy and service to God. To any who wonder why this was allowed to happen, you must understand that we live in a fallen world. We know that we are engaged in battle with enemy. Ephesians 6 beginning at verse 11 says that we put on the whole armor of God and that we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against spiritual wickedness. It calls us, among other things, to let our feet be shod with the gospel of peace.

I pray for the family of this young man who was so sick and so lost, that they will be as surrounded by love and support as the families of the victims.

I pray for the families of those who died, that they will enjoy the companionship of the Comforter that the Savior said He would leave with us. May they be lifted and comforted and nurtured and cherished through their journey of sorrow.

I pray for those who were caught up in the mayhem, who are shaken and frightened, that they, too, will not be forgotten by their families and friends and church brothers and sisters.

I pray for the young woman who shot Matthew Murray. She has great faith but I am sure sorrow will sink in as she thinks of what happened. She knows that God was with her and that she did what was the only thing that could be done, but I pray for her, as well, in the coming days. She will need much strength and much love and much insight. What a wonderful testimony she shared in her news conferences. She was clearly following the Holy Spirit on that day to "stand in the gap" and be what the Lord needed her to be.

And I pray for our society, for all of those lost and angry people who post on the forums their messages of criticism and violence and hate. I pray that their hearts and minds will be prepared for the message of the gospel of peace.

I am not the greatest Christian. I struggle all the time. I was given an assignment to teach the New Testament to our adult class and that assignment is not for them, it is for me. It's for my benefit, so that I can keep myself in the Lord's word and hear what He has for me. The message that I just taught, this last Sunday, was from Revelation 2 and 3. It is all the blessings that come to those who overcome the world.

It reminded me that there is much to overcome and we are not left to do it alone. We are children of a wondrous Father in Heaven and His plan is to have us return and sit on His throne. We don't do that without having learned to be compassionate, patient, kind, loving, charitable, and valiant, firm in the faith, dependable even during our own personal hard times, always willing to seek His will, no matter how difficult it might be.

Peace to you.