Is your favorite part of the day’s newscast at the end when we hear about the weather? Or maybe that’s changed in the past number of years with tsunamis, hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires, and brutal winters. I think the weather, good and bad, is still easier to watch than what the newscasters report.

I ache for those little Christian girls who were kidnapped by the Boko Haram, dispersed who knows where, enduring who knows what every day. We are at 100 days and counting. They no doubt are prodded and threatened to renounce their beliefs or be punished, tortured, or killed. It turns my stomach. It should turn yours. They were brought up in Christian homes and have been transported to hell. And because it’s so awful to repeat it day after day when authorities appear to have turned a blind or incompetent or cowardly eye to their plight, it no longer makes much news.

I am distressed for the people of Israel who have missiles rained down on them day and night; who don’t know if Hamas soldiers will pop out of a hole in the street from their underground tunnels to whisk away Israeli children from schools or daycare or a walk to the store. At least they have the wherewithal to defend themselves, as they should. I am amazed at the number of people who seem incognizant that to defend oneself from an aggressor is a decent thing to do. Defense of self, home, nation – that’s a good thing. It doesn’t make the defender the same as the aggressor. One is trying to preserve life/property, one is trying to take it. WHY DOES THIS EVEN NEED TO BE EXPLAINED? When did such nonsensical thinking permeate so much of our culture?

I am sick that an ordinary flight ended in death for folks who had no other plans than to visit family or friends, or do something business-related, or go on a vacation. Pro-Russian rebels didn’t buy their weapons at the corner store. Russia provided the weapons and approval and encouragement to the Ukrainian anti-government forces, and every person on that flight; every mother who spent the night before worrying over her family’s packing, every business person who stuffed their necessities into a carry-on, every little girl who twirled in front of the mirror before she left and every little boy whose heart beat a little faster when he saw the captain of the plane; every single person might as well have been shot in the head by Mr. Putin, himself. I’ll say this much: their families feel like they’ve been shot in the heart.

I am disheartened that the rest of us don’t seem to know what to do. We voice opinions – and by opinions I mean those who actually have an opinion and actually choose between right and wrong, one side or the other, rather than those who use a lot of nice-sounding words to say mostly nothing in order to continue to be liked – but does it help? We don’t even seem to have the courage to stand up and say that because God says something is right, it’s right; and because He says something is wrong, it’s wrong. It’s not unloving to do that, by the way. Saying the hard thing is the most loving thing to do. Just ask any parent who’s watched their child sink into some life-altering trouble. The people, and I include whole churches, who fail to do so will face a judgment the likes of which will make these recent events pale in comparison.

I think it’s wonderful that people all over the world do their small part. They dig wells for clean water. They come up with amazing agricultural support in developing countries. They offer start-up money for small businesses. They produce decent movies, Christian movies. They sell things and give the profits away. Maybe sending money would make us feel better, but no amount of money in the world would cover the needs of oppressed women (in this case, girls) and nations and victims. Yet we can’t cover our eyes and ignore recent news. The news, the bad news we are seeing and hearing about every day, is not going away. It’s going to get worse.

We’ve run out of time. There isn’t any more time for straddling the fence, for trying to fit every viewpoint into your theology, or for waiting for the next guy to be the hero. Here’s where I stand. I am on God’s side. My short, inadequate, weak self is on God’s side. Whatever I understand to be right according to the Holy Scripture, I stand for. If we disagree about what the scripture says, I say “continue to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling”. And to the evil organizations and people in this world, and Satan, himself, I say this. You can wreak all the havoc you want, because there are unseen multitudes on their knees right now. You’ve had plenty of warning. We’re at the end of the newscast. That lightning you see in the distance, that rumble of thunder? That’s the only other warning you’ll get. Jesus is walking toward His white horse right now, and God isn’t going to wait much longer.

Photo: goodfreephotos.com; Quote: Philippians 2:12