The Love of God

I was listening to the radio this past weekend, and they were talking about “love languages.” They were talking in terms of married couples, that is, husband and wife, but it occurs to me that the church is the bride of Christ, so, to some extent, this sort of thing applies to all of us. Of course, it is important that we love the Lord, but we are also commanded to love one another.
All of us have needs, but we have different ways that we treat our needs. Some people advertise their needs to anyone who will listen, while others of us try to hide our needs. I don’t think that whining is a Christian virtue, but, then again, I don’t think that one should expect God to meet every need just through prayer. Somewhere in between, there is a balance. Don’t misunderstand me, sometimes God will send someone to you because you are in need and you have prayed about it. Sometimes, though, once we have prayed, we need to allow ourselves to be led to the person that God wants to have help us. The old adage is, “God helps those who help themselves.” Sometimes it isn’t enough to pray, one has to be willing to step out in faith, although sometimes praying is all one can do. Remember that God sent Philip to the Ethiopian eunuch, and He sent Ananias to Saul, but He also sent Jairus and the woman with the issue of blood to Jesus.
The flip side of this is that we, as Christians, need to be alert, aware, and prayerful of the needs of others. Just because someone voices a need, it doesn’t necessarily follow that God wants us to tend to that need; He may have a different plan than the one that seems obvious. On the other hand, just because someone doesn’t ask for our help (or even specifically says that they don’t want our help), it doesn’t necessarily follow that they don’t need it (word of caution, though, if you try to help someone who has specifically asked you not to help, make sure that it’s of God, or you’re just going to make a mess). We should have the kind of love for people that God has; to see the needs, and to be ready and able to do what’s best for those around us.
Some years ago, Twila Paris came out with a song (and an album) called, “Cry For the Desert.” At first, the title didn’t make sense to me, but after I got it home, and read through the written text that came with it, I came to realize that ‘desert’ just fits in song lyrics better than, ‘people lost in the wilderness of sin,’ which is what the song is really about. If we love each other, and we love those outside the faith, then we will have compassion for them as well. That involves seeing people the way that Jesus sees them, which isn’t always easy for us to do. More recently, Brandon Heath has come out with a song that says very much the same thing called, “Give Me Your Eyes.”

Gun Control Part 2

About two o'clock this morning, I woke up with a brilliant idea to put in today's blog. I spent several minutes thinking it through, and broke it down into three main points, and got some idea what scriptures I would use to support the three points, and then drifted back to sleep, comforted by the idea that all I had to do was to type these things into the computer and be done for the day. I sure wish I could remember what it was about. Past experience indicates, however, that what seems brilliant at 2:00 AM is usually utter nonsense during daylight hours.

This morning, though, I find a very interesting comment left by a Christian and former police officer named Frank Taylor about my posts on gun control last week. My post was, by the way, a classic example of bad timing. I spent some time Thursday ranting about gun control, and just a few hours later, and not many miles away, there was a shooting at a college campus. Had I but known, I'm sure I could have come with some other example of things that frustrate people (which was, really, the point I was trying to make). Anyway, Frank tells me he comes from a "slightly different viewpoint." From what I can tell by his comment, it's very slight. He lives in Connecticut, and has a carry permit; I live in Illinois, so I don't (in Illinois, only police officers and security guards can get carry permits). To be honest, I wouldn't carry a gun if I could; I'm a veteran, so I'm not uncomfortable with guns, however, my weapons training has been military--I don't know all the legalities of what I could do if I did carry. I'm not comfortable carrying a gun in a civilian community. With my luck, I'd stumble onto a movie, shooting on location, without realizing it, and end up shooting Bruce Willis.

At the same time, does it worry me that Frank Taylor carries a gun? Not at all; his comments make it clear that he knows when and where he can carry, and that he is a responsible individual that uses whatever tools he has available to him responsibly. I saw G. Gordon Liddy on a talk show once, and the host asked him about his gun collection. Liddy's response? "I don't have a gun collection. I am a convicted felon; I am not allowed to own a gun. My wife has an extensive gun collection, some of which she keeps under my side of the bed." Does it worry me that a convicted felon has guns available to him? Most felons, it probably would; Liddy, not so much. There are certainly things in his past that would cause me to question his judgment, but none of them involved misuse of a gun.

Gun owners have for years made the statement, "Guns don't kill people; people kill people." Gun control activists like to add the phrase, "with guns." That is, sometimes, the case. Frank makes the statement, "remember you can be run over by a car, too, and no one is trying to take THEM away." Quite frankly, if someone wants to kill you badly enough, they can probably find a way to do it, even if they can't get their hands on a gun. The problem, of course, is that the situation does sometimes arise where one individual is angry enough, momentarily, to kill, and if there is a quick and easy way to do that (like a gun) they will. Of course, it doesn't have to be a gun; it could just as easily be a knife, an ice pick, or, in the case of a particularly strong individual, bare hands.

In a perfect world, we wouldn't need any gun control, because no one would ever try to kill anyone else. In the real world, no amount of gun control will ever stop people from killing. Frank also makes the statement, "As a Christian AND a former cop, this one man resents the fact that so many in government would disarm me, and therefore prevent me from protecting myself, my family, and others in an emergency. Just the gun? I hear you ask. No, I carry a fairly complete set of tools, rope, chains, electric extensions, blankets, first aid equipment, flashlights." This, by the way, is the expression of frustration that I was trying to get across in Thursday's post. I mentioned before that I would not be comfortable carrying a gun in a civilian community, but I don't like the idea that the state of Illinois thinks it has the right to tell me that I can't (even though I wouldn't if I could). Frank also goes on to say, "Make the gun laws work for the Law Abiding. Take the fear out of carrying one and using it.... then the next time someone decides to 'express his rage' at an innocent person or group of people-- let there be someone there able and WILLING to return fire to STOP him/her from hurting anyone else." Exactly. I believe that is what our founding fathers meant by the second amendment.