About Boston

I’m not exactly sure how to process everything that happened yesterday at the Boston marathon.  I’m incredibly shocked and saddened, of course.  I’m grateful for all who made it safely out and praying for all who did not. There is no pain like the pain of life stripped away too soon by evil people.

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It makes me angry.  It makes me angry that people think this how you say “I don’t like this” or “I disagree”.  It makes me sad to think that in some places of the world attacks like this, senseless violence, are so commonplace they don’t even make the news.

My questions is what does this mean for me?  How will I choose to live not just the day after a tragedy, but everyday because life is precious and short.

• I will be grateful: for a healthy body and sound mind; for family to hug and love; for friends who made it out; for a country where acts of violence are out of the ordinary.
• I will run: because I can and for those who can’t. I will run in silence, and in memory, and in prayer.
• I will pray. It’s all I can do and yet it is the most I can do.  I take comfort in the words said about God when his people suffered in Exodus 2:24 “And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.”

God is not far or distant from our pain—He sees, He remembers, He hears, He KNOWS.  The evil in our world breaks His righteous heart.  He didn’t intend for it to be like this—that’s why He sent His son.

“He has anointed me (Jesus) to proclaim good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives, and recovering sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed.” Luke 4:18

The good news is that Jesus came because of the sin (deep-seated bent towards wrong) that exists in all of us.  I hope you’ve never tried to blow up people or abused a child or any other horrible, “really bad” thing, but you’ve probably screamed at someone in anger or lied or cheated a bit to get ahead or gossiped or hated someone.  All those little things separate you from God just the same. And because you couldn’t get to Him on your own He came to you.

“But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8

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Guys, it brings tears to my eyes because I’ve experienced it. When I was hateful and unforgiving and bitter and self absorbed Jesus died for me.  His death paid for my sins—past, present, and future—forever.  The decision, like many, is simple but not easy.

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That’s all—it is so simple.  When I was four I reached out and accepted God’s gift to me—salvation, relationship, peace, new life, comfort, hope for the future.  That simple choice has defined my life. If I had even put it off one year I don’t know who I would have become.

I may not know you—we may have never looked face to face or eye to eye.  I hope you read this blog because something about my life resonates with authenticity, hope, and purpose.  So here is what I’m asking of you: if you’ve never thought about this before…please, think about it.  Days like yesterday remind us we are never promised tomorrow.

I didn’t set out to write a sermon in this post. I set out to process my thoughts about Boston. You guys got a sermon. I hope that’s okay. I won’t write a sermon tomorrow…okay, I can’t make any promises, but probably not.    And as always, if you have anything specific I can pray for YOU about or you would like to talk further about spiritual stuff just email me at kate moving forward at gmail dot com.

Let’s pray together for Boston.