so i got this e mail yesterday. you know the kind...
Well, it's final. Gay couples can now officially marry in the state of California. The ban was lifted on gay marriages today. And yes, their staunchest supporters were in the streets hugging and kissing publicly.
Among all of the other tragedies in the world this week, this must grieve the Lord the most. Our nation is fallen, and has fallen. A once great nation were we...
i have to say, this was a tough one for me to swallow. i mean, i get my fare share of "Christian" e-mails that tend to be diatribes about the latest and most horrific ills in the world. you would think that i would be used to them by now; the 'W' rants, the 'Barack Hussein Obama is an Islamist extremist' lies, the 'pass along to 10 other people and they will be blessed' forwards, etc. you would think i would be numb to it all. this one though, struck a chord. (i only included a portion for our discussion)
among all the other tragedies in the world this week, this one must grieve the Lord the most.
lets just take a moment and consider those other tragedies. a hundred thousand dead in Myanmar, and many more missing. another cyclone bearing down on this already grief stricken country filled with people who may not know HIM. some forty thousand people dead in China. bodies lining the streets, entire schools caved in killing hundreds of children, many more homeless, parents worried about how they are going to feed their children.
to compare what happened in california to these tragedies is simply astonishing. to think God is grieved more over some piece of legislation than these calamities is ludicrous.
why are gay marriages particularly worthy of our mourning? is this human condition some how any worse than the many others that plague us? do we mourn the same over the thousands of people in this country who drink away their sorrows every night? do we mourn the same over the self absorbed who run to cosmetic surgery to cure their insecurities? do we mourn the 'self medicating', or the 'dollar worshipping yuppie', or the dead beat parents, or the corrupt politicians, or 'fill in the blank here of the many things that we could list'?
for the record i think GOD heavily grieved the losses in Myanmar and China this week. i believe He wept over so many that are experiencing the effects of sin death. i believe HE cries for the beautiful people without food, water, and shelter. does He weep for california and our country. i believe HE does, but it is not over what you might think.
He grieves in california and in the rest of the U.S. for HIS people. HIS people that fail to see who HE is and what HE wants to do. HIS people who cry foul over laws passed in california, but sit idle as a world away is broken. HE grieves as HIS people collect their stimulus checks from the good ol' US of A, and watch charlie gibson report on the tragedies on the new flat screens TV's they just bought. HE grieves over so many who call themselves HIS followers but cannot even apply HIS only sermon to their lives. He grieves over those who forgot that love is the greatest commandment. He grieves over those who have never allowed HIS beauty to be fulfilled in them so that that beauty can be displayed to a world of shadow and darkness.
HE grieves.
Peter once said that 'judgment begins with the house of GOD'. may HE judge us and refine HIS church. may HE have mercy on our souls.
