By Dr. DAN ERICKSON
We all cannot help but be bewildered by what drove a 22-year-old man, Jared Loughner, to kill six innocent bystanders and wound 13 others on a dreadful Saturday in Tucson, Ariz. He ended and changed many lives that day, including his own.
Many ask, “If God is such a good God, a God of love, why does he allow such evil to go on everyday in our world.” A simple answer to a difficult question is, “He doesn’t.” There is more than meets the eye here.
I have learned over the years through working with people in crisis that despair is the result of emptiness of heart. When there is an absence of love, there will be hatred. An absence of light will always results in darkness. The absence of goodness will be replaced by despair and hopelessness. The ultimate absence is when God is not in life, and this results in evil.
Our government, education and social programs spend so much of their time and resources trying to modify people’s behavior instead of changing their hearts. Behind every problem or crisis in a person’s life is an unmet need. We must spend less time trying to fix people’s problems and changing their behavior and instead show them a way to meet their real needs.
Mr. Loughner thought the only way to do that was through violence and the destruction of others. Evil became reality that day because of the absence of a better way, the absence of God. Let’s be honest: Without the Almighty’s help, anyone of us could become an expression of pure evil.
Think about all the things that are destroying our society and our country: poverty, divorce, abortion, fatherlessness, selfishness and greed, just to name a few. When was the last time they made the national news? They are all the result of an unmet need. They are killing countless more people than died that Saturday.
Christ declared that the only way to God – the only way to light and life – was through him. It is too late for those who lost their lives in Tucson, but it is not too late for this young man or for us. He will be sentenced to death or life in prison for his crimes. We too were sentenced, doomed to eternal death. But God’s answer to our death sentence is found in Jesus Christ. He came to declare another way – a way that would bring light and life and overcome evil with good and hatred with love. When we receive God’s pardon through Jesus Christ, he takes care of our unmet need.
Imagine the possibilities!
