Like many of you, I’ve been captured by the horror of Valentine’s Day, 2018. Normally associated with candy hearts and sentimental cards, this day became a sickening host to the worst kind of inhumanity and suffering.
I’ve watched the news casts and read columns entrenched in anger and “it’s your fault” rhetoric and I wonder, when will the politicians stop lashing out at one another? Blame shifting. Politicizing tragedy with messages about gun control. When will the media stop frightening people with oversimplified views of those who struggle with mental health? Pointing fingers. Accusing one agency or another.
Because the fact remains that this morning well over a dozen beds lay empty and mothers and fathers weep at the graveside of a child gone too soon. The answer to these tragedies goes far beyond laws about weaponry or pat answers for people who live with depression. We can banter, argue and get nowhere. Or, we Christians can step into our calling and love others well, proclaim Hope, and set prisoners free.
We know the truth.
Our fight is not against human beings. It is against the rulers, the authorities and the powers of this dark world. It is against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly world. Ephesians 6:12 (NIRV)
We live in enemy territory and tragedies like these are reality because people are captive to his propaganda. They believe the lies.
Nobody loves you. You are nothing. There is no hope. 
Desperate, they embrace the unimaginable and transfer their hatred of self onto the innocent around them. Shattering lives. Destroying families. Stealing hope.
We know the truth.
Jesus came to set people free. To release men, women, boys and girls from the tyranny of self that He might deliver them to a place of soul-fulfillment. Lavishing love. Healing heart-wounds. Restoring joy.
You are loved. You are treasured. I Am hope.
We know the truth and in a world desperate for something more, Friend, you and I must live our faith out loud. The times of passively sitting in a church pew without taking action are past. If you and I profess Christ, aren’t we bound to share His love? To be a friend to the lonely? To uphold the cause of the weak? To come alongside the hurting and broken to offer the eternal answer to life’s challenges and concerns?
Jesus is the answer to the needs of broken boys. He is the cure for a shattered society calling out for justice. And, Friend, we are the ones He has called because we know the truth.
 
Then you will know the truth. And the truth will set you free. John 8:32
 
Lord, help us to bravely step into our calling that we might love and live as if we believe the truth. Lead us into the lives of the broken and needy, Jesus, and transform their hearts by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen
Blessings,
Tammy