Tragedy

“For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.” – Romans 1:21-23 (NIV)

Yesterday, April 15, Lois and I attended an honors convocation on the campus of Purdue University. It was an uplifting ceremony that reminded all participants of the enthusiasm, vision, and hope that are so prevalent on a college campus as young men and women prepare to take their place in the world. It was inspirational to be in the presence of, as Purdue President Martin C. Jischke stated, the “best of the best.”

Today, April 16, Americans are receiving the shocking news of a tragedy of enormous proportions on the campus of Virginia Tech. As of the last report I have heard, more than 22 people on campus have lost their lives to a murderous gunman. More than 28 people are injured. These are just the initial, confused reports. I saw the breaking news at noon. “I have a daughter away at college and a son who has been out only four months,” I thought. “That could happen anywhere, including their college.” I wept. A college campus that has every bit as much vision and hope and optimism for the future as I experienced yesterday has been cast into darkness, despair, and hopelessness today. I weep even as I write this article today.

My heart breaks in sympathy for parents who will be told that their son or daughter who they love and for whom they held high hopes has been killed today. My heart breaks in sympathy for the husband or wife of faculty and staff who will be told that his or her loved one has been killed today. My heart breaks in sympathy for families whose lives have been so tragically – and so unnecessarily – changed today. Normal men and women going about normal activities, yet an unchangeable tragedy has struck their lives.

Most of all, my heart goes out to a culture that consistently and increasingly rejects the offer of peace and salvation. My heart goes out to a culture that consistently and increasingly ignores the Word of God and tries to turn it into a book of myth and make-believe. My heart goes out to a culture that mocks the morality and ethic and piety proclaimed by God through His Word and His believers.

At the time of this writing, it is not known yet what has driven a young man to go on this murderous rampage on a college campus, but I can guarantee that no matter what reason turns up, it will not be worth the devastation he has caused. No matter what drove him to such despair, what would have been the harm had he thrown himself upon the altar of God to seek, even as a last ditch effort, solace for the misery that was driving him mad? What would have been the harm had this young man come away from such an experience having had his despair replaced by the triumphant Spirit of God? What would have been the harm had the campus of Virginia Tech – or any campus – just had to deal with another Christian witness?

At the outset of Romans, Paul addresses a world that knows God but gives Him no glory. Paul writes to our world as well. He tells us the reality we all face. The religious word that our culture rejects is human depravity. The Dictionary of Christian Theology by Peter Angeles reads, “Characterized by corruption, debasement, sin, deterioration, degeneration, evil, perversity, loss of purity, alienation, estrangement. Every human faculty or function is regarded as having an innate possibility for sin.” Even though this concept is frequently ridiculed by modern thought, is there anything that more accurately describes today’s tragedy than this? Men and women today strive so hard for an absolute freedom to live for their personal pleasures that they cast God away from their thoughts. They ridicule those who fail to rid themselves of God as “weak and narrow-minded.” Then, when they come face to face with so much despair and anguish and hopelessness, it translates into such a raging hatred that a normal young man lines up students and faculty on a University campus and executes them mercilessly. Is this not an act of depravity and sin? Is this not a rejection of the Living God who has loved us so much that He sent His only begotten Son to die in our place? My answer is “yes;” if yours differs, I invite you to let me know what else drives a person to such seething, uncontrollable rage. How much more accurate about the condition of the human heart can any human construct be than what we are already told through the Scriptures?

This is certainly not what I intended my article for the May newsletter to be about. But my heart is unutterably broken over this tragic event, and I can think of nothing else. I can hardly bear the thought of what fathers and mothers and husbands and wives and brothers and sisters and children of today’s victims are going to have to go through. I wonder how the University family at Virginia Tech is going to be able to come to grips with today’s unimaginable tragedy. I am overwhelmed.

Later, in the same letter from which I began this article, Paul writes, “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:37-39) Both those who accept and those who reject the Word of God are being given wake up calls almost every day. I certainly hope that this is the message that the culture and world in which I live will once again hear and take to heart. Think how much tragedy we could avert if only the Word of God became the first weapon of choice to our fear, despair, loneliness, and even rage.