So last night I was watching one of my all time favorite movies, "The Shawshank Redemption". At one point in the movie, the main character Andy, makes a statement, "You either get busy living, or you get busy dying." I think that is very much true, maybe just not in the way that Andy may have been implying.
Christ talked a lot about dying to your old self and this rebirthing process of an individual into a new creature. About the old being gone and the new coming. Christ points to us that we need to get busy living! Because right now, without Christ, all of us are on our way to the get busy dying part. I wanted to throw that in on the top of the blog because that had been on my mind.
At Church this morning we talked about Daniel and the type of quiet strength he had. And in the midst of the Colorado theatre shootings it just got me thinking about what if somebody in the theatre had a gun. Would it have been right to stand up and kill the betrayer? Is that something that Christ would have done? It's just been something I'm wrestling with. I was talking to friend of mine about it and he said something along the lines of protecting your family first. And that got me to thinking even more. Maybe that's what Christ was talking about when he said to "Hate your mother and your father." He wasn't implying to have anger towards them in your heart, but rather to distance your emotions from them to avoid a conflict of interest in your heart. Because if I'm in a theatre with my family and I have a gun, my number one desire is to protect my family. Hands down.
The Christian life isn't intended to be easy. Hard decisions are going to have to be made. But all I know is at the end of the day, a handgun never completely solves the problem. It only complicates it. I believe that love needs to prevail and win if we ever want to fix this planet that we call home.
Am I saying that it is wrong to have a gun? No. Am I saying that protecting your family is a bad thing? Absolutely not. What I'm saying is that Christ calls us to live only to bring him Glory. that is the end of the story. These are hard questions in my mind, because Jesus was a rebel, but a very peaceful one. Jesus didn't have a worldly family, but in the end, every single one of his closest friends, his bro's, died to bring Him glory. They didn't fight back.
When Jesus was going up before Pontius Pilate, he didn't say a word. Not a word. Neither did Daniel when he was being thrown into the Lion's den. They showed trust and peace in the midst of triumph. There are a lot of sick people out there. When somebody pulls out a gun they are taking matters into their own hands many times. Is God's plan for you really to kill someone who is as skrewed up a sinner as you and I once were? It's a real question. I'm not sure. God seemed to kill many people in the old testament, and Jesus seemed really peacful in the new one. And I believe that God never changes. So where is the line? Where is the line? I'm not sure.
Just my thoughts for the day :) Sorry it was so long!
-Joe
God does say in the Bible that the punishment for murder is death, self-defense is not punishable.
ReplyDeleteThat's true. But Jesus said to turn the other cheek as well, self defense would be going against that. That's why I think it's a complicated issue.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that you started blogging again, Joe! It's always interesting to read your thoughts.
ReplyDeleteGandhi would agree with what you're saying, and although non-violence seems to be really cool in theory, I'd venture to say that it is nearly impossible in our world, don't you think? Sometimes I wish everyone would take religious morals and use them in life and critically think about them like you do.
Early Christians practicing non-violence were really the cause of so many conversions after Nero...very neat to think about :)
I like it! It really helps me talk through these things to actually write them down. Let's hope I can clear it up!
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