Growing health and effectiveness

A blog centered around The Addington Method, leadership, culture, organizational clarity, faith issues, teams, Emotional Intelligence, personal growth, dysfunctional and healthy leaders, boards and governance, church boards, organizational and congregational cultures, staff alignment, intentional results and missions.

Saturday, December 15, 2012

A Lesson from Sandy Hook

Americans often think that evil is the providence of other places and other countries. The Sandy Hook massacre has reminded us that evil is among us as well as it exists among all people. And it impacts all of us. In fact, a youngster from a family that attended and EFCA church (my employer) was killed. Evil lives among all of us - a result of the fall. Our nation does not have an exemption from the impact of evil.

Our nation has deep needs. Tragedies like this that remind us of evil. Gridlock in Washington that prevents us from coming to common solutions. Economic issues that are impacting many. If there was ever a time to pray more and be more committed to reaching our communities it is now. 

It is hard to get ones hands around the kind of evil we witnessed yesterday. I never will. But such events make it possible to get our hands around the need our society has for the Gospel of Jesus which transforms lives, communities and institutions. Indeed, I am sure that in the aftermath of this event, the love of Jesus will be deeply evident through His people as they minister to the families impacted. We can join them by praying that God would be a comfort and that open hearts would turn to Him in a time of need.

There will be much debate about how to prevent such events in the future. More programs, gun control, security and perhaps other solutions. The real solution is the Gospel of Jesus. 

In times like this I am reminded of Paul's words to the Corinthians. "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows (2 Corinthians 1; 3-5)."

1 comment:

John Kuvakas said...

Well said, my friend. As the true church, it is important for us, now more than ever, to keep our priorities straight and do what we have been called to do, share the love and grace of God and the good news of His only Son.