ItIsWhatItIsIn many ways, he is right. President Obama said the other day in the wake of another mass shooting that it is all “routine.” It happened again. Our response is routine. His words are routine. We go on. A routine.

And people who care about it all are left asking the right question…”Why?” “Why does this happen?”

Actually, it may not seem like people who care are asking that question as we look around and see the interwebs being lit up like the 4th of July with shouting from every which direction; “We need more guns in places this happens!” “We need to get rid of guns!” “We need to find and treat these diseases before they do something this drastic!” So even though these voices don’t seem like questions being asked…we see the fray is real. And I would suggest that at the heart of it all IS that question. “WHY?”

The voices shout and the question remains. That question remains because of the facts. And the facts say there is no evidence that more or fewer guns equals less violence. And the facts say that many of the perpetrators of these crimes had been seeing a qualified mental health professional…and it still happened. The reality is that mass shootings account for only about 1% of all murder in our country and only about 1/6th of them happen in the public sphere against unknown victims.

This alone is telling of the true nature of the problem. Where is our focus? Why does social media light up for 1/6th of 1% of a major problem and keep silent about the rest? We do see violence as a problem, right? Taking away gun-free zones, taking away guns, and spending as much as our defense budget on mental health will not make a big difference in these horrible attacks much less violent crime as a whole in our nation.

These are all scapegoats. None of these are the issue. The issue isn’t guns. The issue isn’t mental health. The issue isn’t Republicans or Democrats or George W. Bush or Barak Obama. The issue is sin. “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8, ESV). I am a sinner. You are a sinner. WE are sinners. I don’t mean that to shame you or myself but only as a reality check. We are broken people.

And what is the result of sin? “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23, ESV). Death. Literally and physically, that is the outcome we are seeing but it happened before any of these stories hit the news. Galatians 5:22-23 says, “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23, ESV). No murder public or private…singular or massive has ever came from these things.

But just before that list is a partial list of the evidence of our sin; “the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these” (Galatians 5:19-21, ESV).

The situations that brought these atrocities about are certainly more than nuanced. So maybe this is too simplistic. But I don’t believe it is. And while we may look at that and feel like our only option then is to take a hand-wringing and resigned posture to it all…saying “I can do nothing then, but accept the ‘routine,’” I urge you to reconsider. We CAN do something. We can work in our lives and in our circles of influence to so infuse the world around us with the fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self-control) that it slaughters the works of the flesh first in ourselves and then in those around us.

Every moment we walk this earth we have an opportunity to add to the death or add to the life. Sin. It is what it is.

Be a witness,
Nate