From the Pastor’s
Desk,
Over the last
weekend in Omaha four more
young people have
lost their lives in senseless
shootings. One or
more of them may be gang related,
or they may not, we
don’t really know. What
we do know is that
gang activity among youngsters
continues to rise
and it takes its toll on all of us; it
influences all of
us; and we are left with questions
that don’t seem to
have any answers.
And now that these
young people’s lives have
ended, almost before
they began, what has changed.
Is some gang content
that the incursion on their
“turf” has been
thwarted. Has appropriate vengeance
for an obscure
geographic invasion been enacted
such that relief has
come to the injured parties?
Are the scales of
human justice now, finally,
once and for all
been balanced, so that both sides
can go back to their
domains, confident in the assurance
that they will now
be able to live the rest of
their lives in peace
and comfort?
Is a life so
expendable that it can serve as the
payment for a debt
so small as encroachment into a
foreign territory,
or some insulting scribbling on a
wall decrying your
fellow man’s relative position to
you?
And who determined
these weights and balances?
Who sets the
redemptive fee for wearing the
wrong color bandana
at one living, breathing, human
being?
When these young
people left this world, did
they carry with them
that “turf” they so longed to
defend? When these
children entered into the presence
of our almighty God,
did they go with their
heads held high
displaying their dignity and honor
for which they had
so unselfishly sacrificed their
lives.
Most of all, I
wonder what response they received
from the only One
who really owns that
“turf” for which
they died; the only One who deserves
not to be “Diss’ed,”
but to be respected and
honored - the Lord
God who made all things.
My Lord, I pray your
children would know and
love you with all
their heart, and all their soul, and
all their mind, and
all their strength; and their
neighbor as
themselves.
Amen