I love Fridays. They’re usually days filled with a sense of accomplishment and anticipation of good things ahead…but not so last week…

On Friday, our nation was shocked by the news of a heinous act in Newtown, Ct. at Sandy Hook Elementary School. The natural question is “Why would someone do such a thing?” It was the question I found myself pondering after hearing the news. We’re now hearing some of the back story of the shooter, which sheds a little light, but still not enough to really understand what caused it. As I thought and prayed for the families there, I was suddenly reminded of where I was the previous Friday and how I had asked the very same question then too…

On Friday of that week before, a small group of us were in Munich, Germany visiting the grounds of the Dachau Concentration Camp. After walking through the various displays, I looked out across the main part of the camp and wondered “Why would they do such a thing?” It’s one thing to read about in a history book, but something totally different to stand in the very rooms where such horrible atrocities happened. It was a powerfully moving and sobering reminder that sin is incredibly ugly. It is the sickness we struggle with and scripture tells us in James 1:15 that sin fully grown brings death. Man’s capacity to do hurtful things is often shocking because we desperately want to believe we’re inherently good, but the evidence reveals otherwise. We need serious help and thankfully it came…  

On Friday 2,000 years ago, the unimaginable weight of mankind’s darkest sins and cruelties were laid on Jesus in a crushing blow of blunt force trauma. The Bible says in Romans 5:8 that “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Jesus knows the full scope of sin’s pricetag and still chose to pay it. Our world has been affected in every way by the results of sin entering into creation and only Jesus can bring peace in the middle of such tragedy (John 14:17). My prayer for these dear families is for them to know His peace and for the Christian leaders ministering to them to be strengthened through the power of the Holy Spirit. I hope you will join me in that prayer.

*Editor’s note: Regarding this subject, a common question is, “Why does God allow evil?” Here is a great short article dealing with the question: http://www.gotquestions.org/God-allow-evil.html