LETTER: Disturbed by all the shootings in the news

This week there has been news of professors shooting colleagues in Alabama, elementary teachers shooting administrators in Knoxville TN, restaurant-goers shooting patrons in Gresham OR, children shooting parents in Des Moines, IA, teens shooting children in Richmond CA, and even here in Athens a client allegedly attempted to strangle her hairdresser.

Paul wrote in no uncertain terms to Timothy about the state of affairs in the last days. He said they would be “perilous.” (KJV) (2 Timothy 3:2-5)

When I read those verses I think of national peril, such as America is in now being an ever-growing economic and military target, but I also think of individual peril. It’s perilous for individuals to simply go about their daily business. It’s perilous to drive an ice cream truck, go to a restaurant, have a faculty meeting, teach in a school. It’s perilous to cut hair, to dwell in your home, to ride in a car with your baby.

Making the days even more perilous are the reasons for the shootings. Being denied tenure? Not liking your haircut? Not responding quickly enough during an armed robbery? Trivial reasons, as if any reason could ever justify a shooting. In the shootings listed above, the reasons make the times perilous, because they are trivial and selfish, just as Paul said men would be. Worse, many shootings have no motive. People simply show up somewhere and begin shooting randomly.

More and more often the shooters are teens. In one of the news stories above, a 12-year-old boy killed his stepfather. Children shooting parents is simply unthinkable. Paul mentions disobedience to parents in the verses above and there is no greater disobedience to parents than killing them or their siblings.

But the peril is not just from without, it is from within even more. James 1:14-15 says, “Each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin.” It is not only perilous times because of bodily danger, but perilous because of our sinful natures to begin with, and Satan’s war against humanity is increasing these days. We are susceptible to being dragged away and enticed. Failure to take captive all sinful thoughts immediately lends a person vulnerable to satan’s wiles. It is open season and every human is at risk.

If you have not asked Jesus to forgive your sins, do so and do not delay. If you are truly sorry for the bad things you have done, thought, or said, ask Jesus to forgive them. Make Him the Lord and Savior of your life. If you are saved, you are not immune to being hunted either. Satan hates the Godly even more than the godless, and it is incumbent upon every Christian to persevere daily in the diligence of seeking His face. Doing so brightens His light inside us, and in these perilous times, what better antidote than being the light of Jesus shining into the eyes of those who dwell in dark places? It is a gift to be bright for Him, because the unsaved are “people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.” (Mat 4:16)

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Prata

Comer