The Eye of A Needle

First off, let me say that Easter was a week ago. Seven days ago we were wearing pastels, eating candy, and blinking in the sunrise. We were overcome with the celebration of LIFE.

So quick were we to forget that.

“That's a win for America!!”

‎”’Talk about you OSAMA BIN LADEN, won't be long before your name's forgotten. America's freedom's always gonna ring. And you know we won't be satisfied til your head's on a stick and your balls are in a sling.’ -Cross Canadian Ragweed, ‘If I Were President’"

“Ding dong the witch is dead, the wicked witch, the wicked witch. Ding dong the wicked witch is dead!!!!!!!”

“took em long enough but thank God! Bin Laden is dead and gone.”

“BIN LADEN IS DEAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! by a US BOMB!!!! Suck that!”

“ADI-FREAKIN-OS Bin Laden...”

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These were just a few of the Facebook status updates I saw when I was brought out of my glassy-eyed television viewing to learn that number one Enemy of the State, Osama Bin Laden, was dead.

Is this how Christians should be reacting to the prospect of a human soul, and therefore one of God’s creations, spending an eternity separated from God?

When I first heard the news, I won’t lie, I was not sorry…and I still feel this way. As an American, I am not sad to know Bin Laden is gone. This was a man who did completely heinous acts against my American life and my Christian faith. From what I trust and know of Scripture, he is getting what his life deserved.

However, I am incredibly uncomfortable with rejoicing in his death. Like I said, his soul is facing an eternity without God, and that is not something to be happy about.

When we as Christians take to our preferred social medias and proclaim things like “Thank God he is dead,” or “a win for America,” are we displaying the Love of Christ?

Ha. Love. What a mystery that stuff is. Not two hours before I was being told the news by our president, I was sitting in a Bible study with some of the most spiritually-grounded people I have come to know in Longview…and we were discussing Love. Specifically, we were discussing 1 John 4.

“Beloved, let us love one another, because Love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is Love. God’s love was revealed to us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. In this Love, not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his Love is perfected in us.”

We as Christians are called to love. It is through that action of love that God is seen by others. If we refuse to love, we are not fulfilling that call. That is to say, in this case, when we celebrate death (the spectrum opposite of love), we are not showing God to others. In short, we are no longer of God.

And, personally, that is one scary thought.

It’s almost like through bragging about Bin Laden’s death and separation from God, we in turn are separating ourselves from God.

We make it all the worse when we praise God by thanking him for ridding us of this man. As I understand him (and it is part of the mystery of faith that keeps me from understanding him completely), God is not a God who wants us to believe he wanted his creation dead.

When we do that, are we any better than the terrorists who rejoiced in the wake of September 11, 2001? We as a nation and a faith were righteously offended…yet we respond the exact same? Not cool, guys…not cool. Doing that only proves every Christian critic right.

Now is the time to come together in Love. Now is the time to stand up in fierce defense of our faith and country. This pivotal event has not ended the war. Our soldiers are still over there, most likely facing a bigger fight than they have been.

We are held to a higher standard. We are called to Love. Jesus never said it would be easy.

This is our eye of the needle.

This is our valley of death.

This is our straight and narrow.

Easter was a week ago. Let’s not forget that.