Clarification

Sometimes we all feel misunderstood. I imagine God feels misunderstood a lot. I mean, He has all of these humans speaking in His Name, defending His honor, taking over His business and trying to help His cause here on earth. And yet, He designed us this way...to partner with Him. It is something that I don't believe I will ever fully comprehend this side of glory.

I posted earlier this week regarding the danger of reveling in Osama Bin Laden's death. This post may have been misunderstood by some who thought I was saying that Jesus is some weak pacifist who cringes at the thought of conflict. I do not think that at all, and feel the need to make my point clearer (maybe for my own peace of mind :). Anyway, here is an example of what I was trying to say:

A while back one of my sons found himself in a conflict, a battle, a war if you will. He was riding along with his girlfriend one night in the wee hours. She was driving, and she had her window part-way down. While waiting at a light, suddenly out of nowhere a man appeared at her driver side window, reached in the car and grabbed a hold of her hair and began trying to hit her. WHAT?? I can only imagine the panic from such an evil attack. Before he could even think, my son flew out of the car, ran around it and grabbed the man and began to beat the daylights out of him. The guy got a hit or two in, but was unable to fend off my son's defense and his pure adrenaline. The man ended up lying in the street, his face bloodied and broken, unconscious. While the altercation was going on, my son's girlfriend had called the police. Thankfully, a patrol car was just driving by as my son and his girlfriend were dragging the unconscious man over to the sidewalk, and he began to try and arouse the man. An ambulance came and transported him to the ICU where he remained for a couple of days, according to the officer who followed up with the kids. The police, after talking with my son and his girlfriend and an eye witness, said that they believed this man was either going to carjack the car, or take the car and the girl and do who knows what with her? At any rate, he was stopped.

Now, the point of my story is this. After this happened, my son found himself totally distraught. He was visibly upset and had difficulty even relating the story to us. In hindsight, he was horrified remembering the sound of the punches as they plummeted this guy's face, and the damage that was done to him by my son's own hand. It was simply awful, and traumatic, and he was worried that the man might not recover.

All I can say is how thankful I am that this was my son's response to the incident. While I believe he did exactly what he needed to do in that moment, I rejoice that he did not have an attitude of bravado about it, an attitude that says "Yeah! Sucker got what he deserved! I should have killed him!!" because that would have broken this mother's heart.

I am thankful that my son and his girlfriend both survived the attack. And I hate that there is evil lurking in darkness to attack my loved ones. But there is, and I know that in that situation my son's reaction was absolutely appropriate. And I also think that his attitude in afterthought is equally as appropriate, because it shows that while violence is sometimes needed, to glory in it is never humane.

And that was the point of my previous post. Thank you for allowing me to share my heart.

"And (may) the peace of God, which transcends all understanding......guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."