On Tuesday night at 1:30am my next door neighbor was robbed at gunpoint. They stole some of her jewelry and her cell phone and of course scared the daylights out of her. This is obviously quite disturbing. We live in a very nice, quiet and (usually) safe neighborhood. But this happened next door! Literally 25 feet from where I was sleeping. You can’t ignore it now that it has happened. So the big question is, what do we do now?
First, I am thanking God that my neighbor was not physically injured, although the emotional scar will be
there for some time and I am praying that God will heal that. Secondly, we will be more vigilant about keeping our lights on at night, our doors locked and try to be as aware as possible of our surroundings.
But am I really surprised that this happened? Yes and no. Yes I am surprised because these things don’t
normally happen in our neighborhood. There has always been the occasional car break in or vandalism but I
have never heard of someone being robbed at gunpoint. I am not surprised though that people have
the will and desire to rob other people. It is in our nature to do whatever we want regardless of the
consequences and regardless of anyone else. We live in a culture that believes in “the survival of the
fittest.” It only makes sense that if someone wants something someone else has then they will just take it. Originally, we were created by God, to live in a relationship with Him. But, we rebelled, we decided that we wanted to live life the way we wanted to and said, “The heck with God, I’m going to live life the way I want to.” The problem is that living this way has created a pretty chaotic world. One in which people lie to one another, cheat on their taxes, start wars, say mean things to each other, think evil thoughts, and even rob each other at gunpoint.
The real answer to all of life’s problems is to return back to God. Because God created life and He’s the one who designed it, then He is going to be the one who knows best how to live it. God has this intense desire for us to enter
back into this awesome relationship He originally created us to live in. Some of you have done this already and you
understand what I am saying. Some of you are not exactly sure who this “God” is or what it means “to have a relationship with Him.” My suggestion is for you to pursue God and get to know Him a little better. But how? There are two main ways: First, read what God says about Himself in the Bible. God has chosen to make Himself known in the Bible. Actually, God has made Himself known through His Son, Jesus Christ. The Bible says that Jesus is the exact
representation of who God is. God chose to communicate to us in the flesh, through a human, Jesus, who was both God and man. So I encourage you to dust off your Bible and check Him out.
The second way to know God is to talk to people who really know Him. I have a personal, intimate relationship with God. I know Him. I have read the truths about God in the Bible and then have experienced
those truths in real life. I know about God’s unconditional love, His mercy and compassion, His justice. I know that He is with me all the time. I am available to talk to anyone who wants to know more (Plus I have this blog where you can get more information and resources to understand God more. Tomorrow you can read about Cowards vs.
Courageous people).
And I am not the only one, there are others who have this same relationship with God through Jesus. So I encourage you to talk to them, get to know them, ask them questions about who God is.
The best is yet to come,
Fletch
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