What Is Happening?

Awful, awful, awful.We can’t imagine living the horror and grief of moms and dads in Uvalde, Texas. And this, on the heels of the horrible shooting in Buffalo.I have been in tears this morning, waiting for my own granddaughters to arrive, knowing that there are sobbing parents today who no longer have that hope.What is happening? How can this be? These mass shootings are becoming commonplace. Nothing like this happened while I was growing up in the 70s. Now, it’s multiple mass shootings every year. What is happening? What has changed?And where is God?Well, God has been removed from the public square. In most people’s minds, there is little thought of God, ever, and virtually no accountability in the afterlife.The Judea-Christian worldview that once standardized our approach to life in the western world is now a thing of the past. If anything, Christian values are ridiculed in the media and our culture.Human lives are no longer valued as image-bearers of God. I so grieve the loss of innocent life in Uvalde and Buffalo. And all of us should. But do we grieve for the 1,000+ shooting deaths in Chicago last year (most of them young)? Do we grieve the loss of the most innocent of our own, the unborn, whose lives are mercilessly taken from them by the hundreds every day? The terrible travesty in Uvalde is happening daily in our own backyard.Why did this not happen in the 70s? That generation grew up with a different set of values. They grew up being taught that there is a God who cares and watched their every move. They were taught that every human being was created in the image of God and held supreme value in creation. And they were taught these things by dads who were actively involved in their lives.Those are the things that have changed in our world. And the absences of those things are what we see tying together the murderers of these mass shootings in recent years, as well as the perpetrators of gang-related war zone shootings in our urban areas. No sense of accountability to God. No value of human life. And no manly influence from an involved and loving father.I long for the day of Jesus’ return. But in the meantime, as his followers, let’s show this very lost world what it truly looks like to live out the values our Creator has given us.