Another shooting. Yes, another. As President Obama said of the tragic Oregon shooting: “Somehow this has become routine.”
So what’s next? After shootings? After bullets? After hate is aimed at others and at us because we believe?
We still love. Anyway.
Still help. Still serve. Still give cups of cold water to a thirsty world.
That’s Paul’s timely message from his letter to the early Christians in Rome. As he put it:
Yes, you’re divided. Yes, you’re targeted. Yes, you feel hated and attacked. And, yes, you sometimes hate in return.
But “never pay back evil with more evil” (Romans 12:17).
Instead, “bless those who persecute you. Don’t curse them; pray that God will bless them” (vs. 14).
What Paul?
Bless our haters? And pray for them, too?
Oh, it’s a great letter—the “greatest theological document ever written,” says one resource about Paul’s extraordinary instructions to a divided, hurting and revenging (in some cases) young church.
Will we today accept Paul’s same challenge? To still do good? To still love? To still bless and not curse? Anyway?
I reflect on his teaching today, wondering how to walk back into the world—after another hateful shooting—and still love.
So I start small. I write a note to a depressed friend—a woman I saw two days ago after years of being out of touch. My note offers encouragement and love.
I text my BFF whose daughter is in the hospital. My text offers encouragement and love.
I pray with my husband before breakfast. Our prayer asks for encouragement and love.
I sit down and write this post. My post offers encouragement and love. A cup of cold water. (I hope it is!)
In the face of evil, as Paul told those conflicted Romans, “Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good.”
So here are these few good words. They’re sent with love.
Let’s keep offering it. When? How about today.
Then may it quench a crying world.
Patricia Raybon is an award-winning author of books and essays on mountain-moving faith.
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