Evil is Real




 On Saturday afternoon my friend and coworker called.  She had heard there was a shooting near our elementary.  My heart sank as I began to frantically search the news.  


Sure enough around the corner from my school, at a house visible from the playground an angry young man seeking revenge shot his ex girlfriend and her siblings before taking his own life.  Two dead and three critically injured.  


Then tonight I was horrified to see yet another shooting in Texas at an elementary school.  With more than 20 lives taken. 


Sickening.  Cruel.  Absolute evil.  


Evil is real.  And Satan is laughing as he watches the world sob.  


As Bishop Keith B McMullin said, "Satan is real and is on the earth as well. He and his legions are wreaking havoc among the children of men. He speaks no truth, feels no love, promotes no good, and avows nothing but mayhem and destruction."


Make no mistake about it.  We are each still accountable for our actions.  But Satan is waiting for us to put our guards down.  To get distracted by secondary issues.  To focus on where we disagree instead of agreeing.  To promote hate and revenge at all costs.  To buy some of his partial lies.  Or step away from eternal truths.  Or to turn on others. 


I know in the end who wins this war but today it feels like an incomprehensible battle loss.  And so we gather in prayer for those on the frontlines today.  And we love deeper.  And we fight back with goodness and hope and faith in God.


Because evil is real- but so is God's power and love.

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