God Is Needed

I was very distressed today to hear about campus life at two Maryland universities in the metropolitan area. At the first a student was murdered after an escalating argument because of an iPod. At the second I think three female students reported that they woke up and discovered a strange man cuddling with them. Both stories left me wondering about the world that I live in, the world that is always in my prayers.

Strange and weird things happen each day. Senseless crimes happen each day. There is no explanation, no justification for uncontrolled anger. Logic teaches us for every action there is a reaction. Morality warns us for every action there is a consequence.

It is a strange violent world fueled by anger, rage, profanity. Where is reverence? Where is respect? Where is love? How many dreams were destroyed with the death of this Freshmen female student? How many lives were shattered?

As I think of this tragedy, this murder feels unreal, foreign, as if it was part of a heavy metal or gangsta rap music video. I can imagine the anger, I can imagine the rage. It is too often part of movies and television shows. Two lives ruined, two families in turmoil.

Young people making bold, brash decisions, young people rushing to be adults, young people behaving childishly, foolishly, callously now must face the consequences of their actions.

Where is religion in their lives? Where is love in their lives? Where is God in their lives?

God is missing from many lives. Morality is missing from many lives. The frontier mentality is encouraged, the rugged individual is glorified, the rebel outsider is canonized. Violence is glamorized. Cinematic death is beautiful, cinematic death is ambivalent, ambiguous. Cinematic murder is rationalized. In real life murder is messy. Lives are changed, devastated by murder.

Murder surprises many people when it occurs in their neighborhood, when it occurs on their campus. Murder surprises parents when their children are involved. Murder makes me yearn for God’s protection.

The only true security that we can ever have is the security that God provides. Man can neither protect us or offer true security. Only God can do that.

God is needed in this world.