Reflections on the Virginia Tech Shooting

The nation has been mourning this past week over the murders of the thirty-two students and teachers at Virginia Tech. It is one of those tragedies that will not be soon forgotten. The messages left by the killer stunned people because of the intense hatred communicated by his words and tone. NBC News president, Steve Capus, in an interview on NBC's "Today," spoke about the decision to air some of the contents of the videos left by the killer: "Ever since we heard the first reports about what happened on that campus, we all wanted to know — and I’m not sure we’ll ever fully understand — why this happened, but I do think this is as close as we’ll come to having a glimpse inside the mind of a killer." The one question that seemed to be going through everyone's minds was, "What could drive a person to do such a thing?"

It is horrific that someone would choose to plan an attack and open fire on a university campus. And it is definitely a tragedy that so many lost their lives in what seems like senseless killing. Whatever the killer's intentions and motives, people seem to be taken aback by the rage and resentment through which he acted.

One thing, though, that crimes like this bring to mind is the thorough sinfulness of man. I understand that generally people strive to live in respect for one another. Kindness is taught as a virtue and love is the overarching social aspiration. But there is an issue of worldview communicated in this that is contrary to what the Scriptures teach. The overall feel of society is that people are generally good and deserve good things. So when a student decides to kill his fellow classmates, people react in horror and shock.

What eludes most people is the reality that every human being has the same propensity to hatred. Thank God it is not manifested in the same way or applied with the same intensity, but nonetheless, it remains in the human heart. Why would someone harbor so much hatred to the point they would be willing to gun down 32 people? The ultimate answer is because of the utter sinfulness of his heart. It is difficult to admit that all people share this same sinfulness in light of these tragedies, but still true.

Seeing the ugliness of sin manifested in the way it was at Virginia Tech makes me look with wonder to a perfect and holy God who would forgive men for sin. This is the condition and ugliness of every human heart and so it magnifies the grace of God shown through the cross of Christ. Of course it is not to say that all men would express that sinfulness the same way, and certainly God is just to punish sinners for heinous crimes such as this, but the delusion that most people are good and that people like Seung-Hui Cho are unfortunate exceptions is misleading.

Hopefully the shootings at Virginia Tech will not cause people to reflect on how much better they are than the killer, but that the human heart in general is really capable of tremendously horrific acts. Hopefully it will open people's eyes to see their need for Jesus who alone can save and cleanse the human heart. I think most people would say in defense, "I'm nothing like that killer." Of course not all people are equally guilty in the way they demonstrate their wickedness as protrayed in the shooting. But the Bible teaches that all people have in the heart the same root problem.

Sin - the Suicidal Exchange

The pursuit of sanctification for the Christian brings at least two things to mind: the glory of God and the abhorrence of sin. The glory of God should weigh heavy on our hearts and minds as we consider that it is God alone who deserves glory as the Creator, and all of creation was designed for the purpose of glorifying Him since all things were made by Him and for Him and exist only because of Him.

Jonathan Edwards writes, "The end of creation is that the creation might glorify God. Now what is glorifying God, but a rejoicing at that glory he has displayed? The happiness of the creature consists in rejoicing in God, by which also God is magnified."

The pursuit of sanctification is a pursuit of joy, not of drudgery. It is we, and not God, who make Christianity to be less than what God intended, which is a life full of happiness. But happiness is not something that can be generated with ourselves in the place of primacy. True happiness can only be experienced when God's glory is my greatest desire and that life is not so much about me as much as it is all about God receiving the glory and the majesty and the honor and the praise.

John Piper writes in reflection of Jonathan Edwards these words:

"The love of God for sinners is not his making much of them, but his graciously freeing and empowering them to enjoy making much of him. As Edwards says, "God is their good." Therefore if God would do us good, he must direct us to his worth, not ours. The truth that God's glory and our joy in God are one radically undermines modern views of self-centered love. God-centered grace nullifies the gospel of self-esteem" (God's Passion for His Glory, pp. 34-35).

To find our greatest happiness, we must seek the greatness of God. It is only when we strive to grasp the transcending glories of God that we start to understand the majesty and wonder of who we are dealing with, not some two-bit deity morphed out of some Greek mythology book but rather the Creator of the universe who in His super-abounding grace and mercy reached out to us in Christ and provided the way of salvation to save miserable souls destined for hell. Left to ourselves, hell is exactly where our free will takes us. We CHOOSE to go to hell because we CHOOSE to reject the glories of God and, in what Piper calls "the suicidal exchange," we settle for the broken cisterns of created things.

This perspective really is something that we must consider. Sin is not simply just falling short of God's standards of right and wrong. It is to want something less than the glory of God, which is utter folly. It is, as C. S. Lewis wrote, to settle for mudpies in the slums when you can have a day at the beach. It's not that we want so much but that we settle for so little.

Romans 1:23 says that people will exchange the glory of the incorruptible God for the image of corruptible man and birds and animals and crawling things. This is sad but all too true. This can be seen in the lives of so many people, who make unbelievable choices to settle for anything and everything except God, that they would stoop to worshipping inanimate objects that have been fashioned by man!!

This is what sin is. It is to fall short of desiring the glory of God and settling for junk. It is to look at the Creator and see His loving heart and wisdom to guide us and reject that for the shallow "love" of the world and worldly thinking that only leads to destruction.

I would encourage you to consider the mindset of what drives you as a Christian. Do you take sin seriously? You will only when you are filled with the wonder of God's glory and see sin as a suicidal choice to settle for something less. Don't be a fool. Seek God's glory. Then you'll not only be holy but happy. =)

Psychological Irresponsibility

When I was attending UCLA and studying psychology (after a two year bout with pre-med bio), there was one thing that started to stand out about all that I was hearing. There seemed to always be a reason to deflect personal responsibility for "abnormal behavior." Taking abnormal psych revealed that EVERYONE is abnormal so it really is not our faults because it is either society's fault, our parents' faults, our cultural upbringing, the trauma we had coming through the birth canal, and a host of other possibilities where we could conveniently place the blame for why we are the way we are.

The Bible is clear in that the primary reason for all our "abnormal behavior" is really because we are sinful creatures that are prone to rebellion against God's design and we are quick to point the finger at what others do. Or maybe worse yet, we blame God.

Wives blame husbands, husbands blame wives, parents blame children, children blame parents, church members blame the pastor, the pastor blames the church members, neighbors blame the "bad" neighbors, employees blame the boss, boss blames the employees, and the list can go on ad nauseum.

There is a simple response to all this psychological irresponsibility. Admit that YOU are the one responsible for YOUR sin. Yes, others might make it difficult and even tempting, but in the end, we make the choices to sin. Others do not force us to sin, even if they were to threaten us with violence. We still have a choice to make.

Do you take responsibility for YOUR sin? Or will you just try to deflect it to others? Maybe for some of you, you don't want to even admit that you sin. Take a look at Scripture and see what God says:

"If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us." 1 John 1:8-10

Let's stop blame-shifting and start taking responsibility for ourselves. But it doesn't end with just trying to beat ourselves up. Consider 1 John 1:9 - we look to the character of God as we respond humbly in confession.

This is why there is always hope. God is faithful and righteous. He will never change. So let us rejoice in hope (Romans 12:12).