It was the wrong week to watch a murder mystery, even
the classic, Murder on the Orient Express. Not because of the movie itself, or the
acting but because the world has changed since I read it with my girls for English 5 years ago. The
years spent raising children have a meter of their own. Days and weeks warp, as if contained within the
lives of children is a 4th dimension that can transport their loved
ones back through time with a simple look or smile. By this chronology, 5 years
is a lifetime.
Throughout those years, my husband and I spent time
talking to our children about the importance of friends: making friends,
managing friends and maintaining friends.
Lately, the conversation has turned to the less discussed ability human
beings have to make enemies. The
conversations are difficult yet rich, revealing the truth that regardless of
how you obtain enemies it is certain that you will make enemies through your
friendships. That can be a startling
realization for a young mind.
An enemy is defined by Webster’s as, “a person who
hates another: a person who attacks or tries to harm another.” How can something as comforting as friendship
usher into my life someone whose intention it is to harm me? This question has come to the forefront
recently, as survivors share their stories wherein the
pretense of friendship was stripped away leaving harm, pain and fear. It is difficult to explain
these situations if you do not believe in evil or acknowledge the presence
of hate (its socially acceptable name).
Social media and our online lives seem to have made the
task of being hateful easier than ever before.
The ability to publish words and opinions, without even talking to those
whom we disagree has become our meat and drink.
Why even this week, world leaders have traded insults, engaging in name
calling as if it were an advanced form of foreign policy. It might be comforting to imagine a new
leadership will wash away the incivility that dominates our culture, but lately
I have come to realize that overt corrosive public hatred is now an acceptable
form of communication.
I know. I’m slow. Hate in all its forms has been around since
the beginning of time, (or slightly after the beginning of time depending on
how you measure these things) but to watch global vitriol increase is
frightening. Like the bird in Tinkerbell who hatches and then tries to jump back into its broken shell, sometimes I lack
the courage to act in certainty and in opposition to my fear. When fear looms
large, hate cannot be conquered.
Which brings me back to the movie I shouldn’t have been
watching… The movie centers on the theme of human revenge in the face of evil. The apex of the narrative involves is a
reenactment of a murder; the consummation of human revenge. The hatred illustrated was all the more
disturbing given the events which took place this week, wherein evil culminated
in mass murder. This violence took place
in a church in a small Texas town, new territory for this deranged hatred. Hundreds of lives lives shattered by violence. The words, “Human justice is sometimes not
enough,” spoken by the character of Poirot carried a weight of truth. Human systems cannot bring justice to such
evil.
My prayers this week join with the countless voices
who are crying out for comfort for those who are mourning. So many in the past few years... So many who have faced injustice and hate
through the decades...centuries. I am
praying that as a church God might grant us the grace to boldly love in the face
of hate, to overcome evil with his goodness.
That somehow, our faith would make it past our own front door out into
our world.
To those who have served their countries, we thank you
for your service. To those who have lost
loved ones, our hearts ache for you. We
are thankful for your courage. May
Jesus, our friend, sustain you and comfort you in your suffering.
And
even in our sleep,
pain
which cannot forget
falls
drop by drop upon the heart,
until
in our own despair,
against
our will,
comes wisdom through the awful grace of God ~Aeschylus~
xoxKaren
