Police were alerted by two vendors to an SUV that ultimately was found to contain three propane tanks, fireworks, two five-gallon cans of gasoline, and two clocks with batteries, and electrical wire. A few pops, some smoke, and many accelerated heart beats later; a potentially deadly situation was avoided.
"We avoided what could have been a very deadly event", said Mayor Michael Bloomburg.
"Other" places
Maybe you are like me... you read the news. You read of the atrocities that happen around the globe. Suicide bombers. Genocide. Rapists. Hate crimes. Murderers. Child abuse.
We hear about these things, but somehow we remain disconnected. This happened in New York. That happened in London. A car bombing in the Middle East. Mass murder in Africa. That stuff just doesn't happen here in Akron. Canton is safer than that.
Somehow, because it is distant, it seems less real. This could not be farther from the truth.
It is not about distance, it's about direction
Regardless of where you live. Hatred is on the rise. Maybe suicide bombers have not hit your market place. Does that mean that they won't? The horrors we read of now, we could not comprehend twenty years ago. Where will we be twenty years from now. Will downtown Akron be the site of a terrorist attack? Just because it hasn't happened here, does that mean that it won't? That it can't?
We live in a fallen world. Scripture says that the wages of sin is death. The problem with that phrase is that it is not always the sinner that dies. Too often, the innocent suffer because of the hatred or anger of another.
A drunk driver runs into a family late at night. Children are killed. The drunk driver walks away. Physically unharmed, but scarred none the less.
A rape is committed, a crime of anger and hatred. The angry attacker walks away less human. The innocent victim is shattered.
The wages of sin is death. Death of a body. Death of a person's humanity. Death of hope. Death of dreams. And, simply put, broken things don't fix themselves. They just steadily (and sometimes too quickly) get worse.
But that isn't fair.
No. It's not. Again, our world is fallen. that means that it is cracked. It is broken. And broken things just don't act right. Broken minds don't think correctly. Broken hearts don't know how to love. Broken dreamers live nightmares.
Luckily, God isn't fair either.
Maybe you grew up thinking that God was fair. Without a doubt, He is not. And His "unfairness" is one of the biggest sources of hope for us to rely upon.
It is true that the innocent victim does not deserve to pay the consequences for some other person's evil. But, neither do we deserve God's love and grace. He loves us not because we are good, but because He is good. So, the world is unfair, and it stinks. But God is even more unfair, and that's awesome.
A word of hope.
Let me leave you with some hope.
Scripture tells us that King David and his men had been in battle. When they returned home, they were horrified by what they found... or more accurately, what they did not find. While they were off battling, someone had stolen away their wives and children. Off fighting in a war, they did not realize the battle was closer to home than they thought.
King David and his men made chase. They found their wives. They found their children. They recovered them all. This Psalm picks up as they begin to sing and celebrate.
Psalm 126:1-2 (NIV) 1.A song of ascents. When the Lord brought back the captives to Zion, we were like men who dreamed. 2.Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, "The Lord has done great things for them."
The end of that first verse is unreal... "we were like men who dreamed." If you have been too close to the horrors of this life, whether you live in North Eastern Ohio or the farthest corner of the earth, let me introduce you to the one who can show you how to dream again.
...Christopher Levi
