Stop!

In truth it’s likely too late to stop. Civil war approaches again.

The drum beat of war is both intoxicating and addicting. The way of violence is in our flesh. It is the easy path to start down, so it is the favored tendency of most men. It provides a feeling of power, a rush of confidence, and a high not unlike that of any other drug. Rarely do we think through the consequence of it because the joy of release and the spray of blood is just too enjoyable to pass up.

• Wednesday a man at my work died. At his desk. He just passed out from heart failure (we think) and the cleaning crew found him around 8:30pm. No one had noticed him as they left the building.
• Yesterday a couple videos surfaced that show a couple someones failing to listen to a couple police officers who were scared and did an incredibly stupid thing and killed that someone.
• Last night people in my city started killing police officers.
• This week Hillary was shown to be a criminal but released from charges and the Internet blew up in disgust.

What, tell me, do all these things have in common? What is the common thread?

It’s not as obvious as it should be, is it? Some of things in the list you found tragic, some stirred anger. Some seem completely unrelated. I see people today posting that get it, but not nearly enough.

A core thread is a lack of empathy, a lack of compassion. A lack of value for human life. But that’s not the commonality.

We have repeatedly seen in the world the damage that can be done to human lives when top secret information gets out, but we hold up the ideal that there is no such thing as secret information as a shield against caring about that.

We have repeatedly seen in the world the damage that can be done to human lives because of Internet outrage, but we demand blood, under guise of justice, when a public figure proves they are human.

We have repeatedly seen in the world the damage that can be done to human lives when groupthink turns to riot, but we have such deep wells of anger to exhaust and they crave escape.

We have repeatedly seen in the world the damage that can be done to human lives when fear drives a person with a gun, but it’s so expensive to train for combat and it’s just a small town, anyway, so what’s the harm?

We have repeatedly seen in the world the damage that can be done to human lives when we resist authority, but I’ll be damned if anyone is going to tell me what to do.

We have repeatedly seen in the world the damage that can be done to human lives when we ignore each other, but we’re so busy and other people are somebody else’s problem.

Yes, at the core of these things is a lack of humanity, but more importantly there is orchestration there. There is coordination. The Florida shooter, the movie theatre attackers, the dog fighting, the marathon bombing, the political race, the lack of cohesive neighborhoods, catfishing, bullying… these things are controlled, steered. There is nothing random, nothing haphazard here.

The thing that ties all of these incidents together is the absence of God. They are incidents where we act for ourselves. Where we slap His hand away and take our own control. And why do we do that? What is a lack of God? It is an open door for Satan, that’s what. It is an open and uninterrupted phone line directly to our fleshy bits to say that we are gods. It’s the whore of Babylon seducing us to worship only ourselves because we are powerful and desired and in control. It’s the whisper that says God isn’t listening, that we have to take control or we will be killed by all those other evil people out there.

We are being tricked. We are seeing today that the choice is war. The hearts of men are harshly divided, unsettled, and bloodthirsty. Voices calling for peace are drowned out by the cries that we are naïve, blind, or corrupt. That only those shouting for war are just, open, and clear.

This has happened before. Thousands of times through history. Each time the result was war, destruction, fire and ashes. But in each, when the voices of hate silenced each other with the bloody gurgle of death, the voices of peace came clearer. We were reborn to light for a time.

Right now we struggle trying to find a way to that peace without that death. I don’t know that we are reasonable enough to find that path; it is rocky and narrow and difficult to navigate. I think we won’t find it, but I pray… oh, Father, how I pray… for us to find it, to walk it.

Peace, forgiveness, Love, compassion, and camaraderie to all of humanity, I pray. If we cannot, then Father I ask that we be able to shield those in the light from the coming war. Bring forth the defenders, the protectors, and let the death-worshippers destroy only each other. I know Your end is righteous, but my heart aches for the pain we may be facing. Help us, Lord. Please.