Mixed emotions today…
Is the news of Osama Bin Laden’s death cause for celebration?
Is it relief that I feel? That a global terrorist can no longer wreak havoc?
Is it sadness I feel? That the world is rejoicing in someone’s death?
Whatever it is… we all lived through the horrendous, scary, life-altering attacks on 9/11. Most of us remember exactly where we were when we got the news of the first plane crashing into the Tower. We were speechless as we watched the second plane fly into the second tower. We cried, we got angry… we all dealt with that day in or own ways.
And now this… we’re all processing the news of OBL’s death in our own way, in our own timing, according to our own perspective and through our own filters.
What if?
We happened to be watching Fox News when Geraldo made his giddy announcement “Osama bin Laden is dead!” The inappropriate nature of his response immediately brought up a check in my soul. ::: Is he really celebrating someone’s death?! ::: Next he said something like “This is the greatest night of my career!” ::: Is he really making this about him?! ::: And the longer we watched the more I knew I couldn’t keep watching. As a Christian, it didn’t feel right to be victorious in someone’s demise, no matter how evil he was.
What if Geraldo had reacted differently? Imagine… what if he had delivered a message more like this: “US Military forces have seen to it that FBI’s Most Wanted global terrorist can no longer plan mass murders and kill any of our loved ones. Following the President’s orders, he has been taken by force and did not survive.”
Would the tone of last night’s news have been a bit different? Maybe. But we will never know.
Instead we will react to this news, feel emotions and process it the only way we each know how to… and that looks different for each of us.
Do me a favor?
If someone blogs / tweets / updates their Facebook status or starts up the water cooler conversation with a point of view that doesn’t necessarily match your own belief system please remember that their words are more about how THEY are processing this emotional news than how they think their 436 readers or co-workers SHOULD be processing the news. Please, please… don’t turn their point of view around to attack that person for their beliefs or morals… and please don’t argue with the person… that’s what got us here in the first place.
If you do anything in the next few months, as our country processes these changes, please be gracious and allow your fellow American citizen, family of a service member and/or family member of someone who died in 9/11 to process this in their own time, in their own way.
That’s why we’re here… to be with each other, help each other, stand beside each other… not tear each other down.
And that’s just my two cents on the topic…
But I can't help but wonder how God views all of this, because of a verse I shared a few months ago. We may never know...
Psalm 11
For the director of music. Of David.
1 In the LORD I take refuge.
How then can you say to me:
“Flee like a bird to your mountain.
2 For look, the wicked bend their bows;
they set their arrows against the strings
to shoot from the shadows
at the upright in heart.
3 When the foundations are being destroyed,
what can the righteous do?”
4 The LORD is in his holy temple;
the LORD is on his heavenly throne.
He observes everyone on earth;
his eyes examine them.
5 The LORD examines the righteous,
but the wicked, those who love violence,
he hates with a passion.
6 On the wicked he will rain
fiery coals and burning sulfur;
a scorching wind will be their lot.
7 For the LORD is righteous,
he loves justice;
the upright will see his face.
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