This Is Not OK

This world is broken.

Horrifically.

The depth of it is so great that if it has never made you consider giving up all hope you simply aren't looking deep enough.

We are starting a church in our neighborhood. One of my friends here has been occasionally bringing one of his friends. I don't know the guy well. I can only call him an acquaintance.

But something went down late this afternoon and that acquaintance was shot and died on the scene. I know next to nothing on details. I know where it went down. I know there was a "altercation". I know the suspect fled on foot.

That's it.

And frankly, I don't care about the details. I don't care what lead to it. I don't care if he "brought it on himself". I don't care about the racist comments that will inevitably show up on the Times Union website in the next 24 hours.

This is what I do know and do care about.

This is not OK.

This is not what our world is supposed to be like. Everything is broken.

But that doesn't mean me ought to give up hope. In fact, these events make life and this world matter all the more. There's urgency.

Because this is not the end.

All of this.  All of the brokenness is going to be undone. It will be redeemed. It will be reconciled. It will be treated with absolute justice.

And it is all the more urgent because everyone on this earth will give an account. An account that will either point to the Cross as our only hope . . .

. . . or will point to our self (and the pile of evidence proving our own culpability in creating all this brokenness).

You can waste your life in the streets, but it is equally tragic to waste your life in the pursuit of the American Dream.

I pray that we'd each be struck by urgency. That we would each recognize that there's a greater hope and a greater citizenship offered to us.

This one.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.  I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life.  Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children.

Lord, come soon.