As members of the body of Christ, we should not ride along on the bandwagon of media-created emotionalism. Rarely can we glean truth from the media, and since we are mostly reading or listening to reports of incidents far away from us, it is difficult to verify accuracy.
America is caught up in another major shooting tragedy, and emotions are running high. Who is to blame? For sure, the media will identify the culprit in its left-leaning tendencies, and the politicians will try to fix the problem with more laws.
Herein lies a good lesson for us. Leave the emotions out in the twigs and branches alone and look to the trunk of the tree. What is the real cause?
Here is a principle we can incorporate into our thinking. “Like a flitting sparrow, like a flying swallow, so a curse without cause shall not alight” (Proverbs 26:2). As flying birds return to their nests, the cause of a curse will alight also. As people of God, we need to look for the real cause of the ills that surround us.
Here are some insightful comments from American journalist Barri Weis who currently writes for the German daily newspaper Die Welt:
“What they’re fighting against is a subculture. What they would need to defeat in order to pass the gun laws they want is a mindset and a way of life.
“The whole story here is a story about culture. If you want to get at the root of why so many people are killed by guns, you have to look at culture. We are culturally ill. “There is a deep sickness in this country, it goes beyond our addiction to guns. It’s an anti-social, anti-human disease that has gripped our society and our politics.”
The real cause is a disease of the human mind. Through the prophet Jeremiah, God tells us that the human mind is “incurably sick.” What is the cause of this sickness?
God’s answer to this question is: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the Lord” (Jeremiah 17:5). When God is left out of the picture, this cause produces a curse which in turn produces an incurable mental sickness.
It is a sickness that is devoid of love for God or love of neighbor. When God is out of the picture in human life, an “anti-social, anti-human” mindset will inflict death and destruction. “Those who depart from Me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the Lord …“ (Jeremiah 17:13). Written in the earth refers to death and dying in this physical realm, as opposed to our record being written in heaven.
The media will not, indeed cannot, give us the real cause of these massive evil occurrences. But God has revealed them to His people.
Remember, every curse has a cause, and we are expected to use our God-given minds to analyze those causes.
God is searching hearts and testing minds, “Even to give to every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings” (Jeremiah 17:10).
Stay close to the trunk of the tree and recognize the true causes of the ills surrounding us.
Brian Orchard
