New Painting in Office

I have been meaning to post this for a while, but my amazing wife, Joanna, did a great mixed media painting for my office!  It is about 30" x 40".   She used paint and paper and tissue to make it happen!

The Tension Between Justice and Love...

It is so easy to feel excited that we have been able to kill Bin Laden and are rid of this terrorist leader.  It is so easy to cheer with the next person with American pride that we have hit Al-Qaeda right where it hurts. It is so easy, but still deep within us we are disturbed… It feels as though this can’t be right…right?

I think that the hardest place for Christians to be right now in light of recent events is to struggle with the tension between Justice and Love.  It is in the place we struggle with the feeling of “God is a just God” and “Love your enemy.”

I think we have an innate understanding of justice.  We know that it should work out that good people have good things happen to them and that bad people deserve the bad things to happen to them.  It is this exact understanding that makes it so hard for us to accept it when a great loved one who was an amazing person gets cancer.  Why? 

I am asked a lot “Why do bad things happen to good people?”  My response has become, “Bad things happen to everyone, we just notice when it is opposite of what our justice understanding would think.”  In other words, bad things happen and good things happen to everyone; we just take note when they happen to the wrong kind of people.

I think that this is where we find ourselves with Bin Laden.  We celebrate the killing of someone because we understand him to be bad, and therefore he deserves bad. 

Then I challenge us to hear again Jesus words in Matthew 5:43-48(NIV) in the Sermon on the Mount:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that?  And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

I must be perfectly honest, that I struggle with these words today.  I want to say, yeah but do you know what he did?  I find myself in the tension between Justice and Love, and if you find yourself there today, I want you to know that is ok.

Much Love, Grace, and Peace,

Chris Cummings