Bullet the Blue Sky

July 20, 2008

This past Tuesday, there was a shooting two blocks off from where the church is located. An AK-47 shot 28 bullets into the FEMA trailer where a local rapper was sleeping. Paramedics declared him dead at the scene. When my pastor, Dr. Taylor told me about the shooting, I was immediately overcome with a presence of evil. I could not bring myself to drive by the location of the shooting. I simply felt unprepared, spiritually, to take on the evil that I felt surrounded the place. My awareness of spiritual warfare was sharply piqued. I so rarely feel like I encounter true, frighteningly real spiritual warfare, but I was sure that if I went over there, I would be faced with it. On Friday, I finally mustered the mindset to drive by the scene where the shooting occurred. Sure enough, twenty-eight holes, all directed toward the end of the trailer where the man had been sleeping. Some had passed through the trailer to the other side, hitting an SUV upon its exit. It grieves my spirit even now to think of a person so filled with rage that he could intentionally murder a man in his sleep. The enemy was surely present that morning.
The next day, teams gathered at our church, as they do every Saturday, for visitation. Each team received a binder filled with the names of the people that were to be visited that day. I opened our team’s binder to find an address on the same street and block as the shooting. Surely this was not the address for the crime scene?! In fact, it was not... it was the address for the next door neighbor. Others on our team, and the coordinators for the visitation had not heard about the shooting, but my heart was anxious. As the three of us parked in front of the home of the family we were to visit, I could not help but glance, once again, at the holes. I would never in my lifetime be able to enter that trailer. Even the thought of it makes me shutter.
As I thought about that event throughout the week, I reprimand myself for having such a fearful attitude about that place. Don’t I believe that the Spirit within me is greater than any spirit of evil that is in the world? Don’t I believe that we as believers are more than conquerors in Christ Jesus? Shame on my spiritual life if a presence of evil paralyzes me from ministering. In the battle of spiritual warfare, perhaps I am just too afraid to advance to the front lines.
I sat thinking about this late tonight. The moon was brilliantly clear and I needed to go for a walk. As I laid on some steps, staring up into the night sky, I thought about all these things. I thought about how this man’s act grieved my soul so deeply. I thought about spiritual warfare. And then I thought about Jesus, and how desperately I wanted to be with Him, and how eventually, all of this would fade away and we would be in his perfect presence forever. But now, in the meantime, there is ministry to be done, and people who desperately need Jesus’ life and a peace that penetrates straight to the fearful, wounded soul. No matter how difficult ministry can be, or how disappointing, I must remember that it is all for the sake of Christ and His glory.

Revelation 21: 3-5 and 22:12-16 inspire me.
Then I heard a loud voice from the throne: Look! God’s dwelling is with men, and He will live with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will exist no longer; grief, crying, and pain will exist no longer, because the previous things have passed away. Then the One seated on the throne said, “Look! I am making everything new.”
Then, Jesus says,
“Look! I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me to repay each person according to what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates. Outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying. I, Jesus, have sent My angel to attest these things to you for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright Morning Star. Both the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And anyone who hears should say, “Come!” And the one who is thirsty should come. (and the girl, who lies looking up at the night sky whispers, “Come, Lord Jesus; It’s all for you!”)