Virginia Tech

This is all the news… Many people must be speculating about this young man and how this could have been prevented… Maybe if we had better counseling services… maybe if we had tougher gun laws…. Maybe if we had tighter restrictions on college admission or better screening of foreigners coming into our country this wouldn’t have happened. But another thought comes to me altogether
What if a couple of God fearing, born again, Christians had befriended this young man. Too often I have seen Christians take the “Ooh, what horrible sinners and people they are… let’s stay away from them.” We are encouraged by the Apostle John to walk the way Jesus walked. And Jesus hung out with prostitutes, sinners and tax collectors; basically all the people that good religious people would avoid.
So think about it, what kind of effect could some godly love have had on this young man? From what little I have heard, he sounds tormented and tortured, emotionally and mentally. So who was it that came to bind up the broken hearted and to release the captive? Maybe some “real” Christians could have made the difference and turned him from a path of destruction.
This really makes we want to rant and rave about how we have turned Christianity into this exclusive club and we want to keep all the “unworthy” people, or people who make us uncomfortable out of the club. Christianity is not just for rich people, or white people. It is a religion born out of God’s love for all people. A love that was expressed in the person of Jesus Christ. A love that was displayed in the life of Jesus Christ. We can display that love when we embrace “difficult” people and love on them instead of demanding our rights to be treated fairly. This side of heaven there are no guaranties that anyone will treat us fairly. We are only admonished to treat all people with kindness and love; even our enemies. So Christians, take this as a wake up call. The few chances you take in loving people, the more chances that people like this young man how killed all those people at VT, will rise up again and again.
But I do warn you don’t approach such people by yourself. Make sure to take a buddy/prayer partner. Jesus sent his guys out two by two.
Amen…