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I must admit that I am sick today. Yes, physically ill due to the flu or some kind of sinus infection, but also sick of the news. Normally I am not one to blog or respond to the news or the current events. I believe that the people who read shaycam aren’t necessarily interested in hearing about the things that are all over the news, but want to hear something different. Which is the basis for my thoughts today which I am nicely titling “deconstruction.”

In an article by Fox News published yesterday (04/18/07), the writer poses the question “Did the Devil Make Him Do It?” Of course we all know who she is talking about, the now famous Cho Seung-Hui who went on a shooting rampage at Virginia Tech earlier this week. In the article she asks different “theologians” about the possibility of satanic influence or control of this man which may have caused him to commit such a horrible act. The writers thesis makes sense. Basically she just wants to know why we (an American culture) seem to turn to psychology for the answers when something like this happens. I’ll add now that I think it’s funny that they don’t really ever have an answer, or they have so many answers we don’t know which one to choose. So, I can understand the basis of her writing the article. Yet she continues on asking these different theologians what they think about the possibility of demon possession as opposed to some kind of depression or mental illness that Cho Seung-Hui may have had. This is where I felt I needed to clear some things up.

I am not opposed to asking the question about demon possession. Honestly, demon possession is real. It’s a real thing in Scripture and I believe that it can be a real thing today. BUT, and I stress, I believe those situations are rare today. As I watch and read the news of this story, everyone is looking for an answer. Most of the time it seems that people are trying to excuse this man in some way. “He was mentally ill… he was in a state of depression… he had been ‘sick’ for a while…” These are the kinds of things we are hearing. And for that matter, the news has gone as far as to show us pictures and video to almost exalt his actions. I’m sick of the excuses. I’m sick of hearing that we can’t “blame” him, but that it was something outside of himself that was “controlling” what he did. Listen. Sin is a real thing in this life. Sin is something we do! Sin can be defined as going against the direct command of God. But I’m not hearing about this man’s sin. We have no problem with men in the middle east blowing themselves up every day for their religious cause, and believing they were in their right mind when they committed the act. But as soon as something like this happens in our country, we blame the brain. We don’t want him to be at fault, because we don’t want to be at fault for the sin we commit every day. But you know what the Bible says, “… all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God” (Romans 3:23). And the truth is, sin has one final result: death (Romans 6:23). That is, separation from God for eternity. Cho Seung-Hui fell short. Yes, his act was crude and horrible, but he fell short…. and so do you, and so do I.

But that’s the beauty of the Gospel! This is the reason why Jesus Christ, the son of God, a perfect man died. Though he lived a sinless life, he paid the penalty that was due us for our sin. He took the blame on himself, so we could live eternally and not be separated from God. When we fell short, Christ didn’t. In the midst of our sin, we can have hope. We can have hope that if we trust in Christ as our Savior, if we believe he is the Son of the true living God, he will save us. He will save us from the sin “that so easily entangles” us. He could’ve saved Cho Seung-Hui, but now it’s too late. Cho Seung-Hui is experiencing separation from God in a real way today. But if you’re reading this, it’s not too late. There is still time for you to learn of the grace of the God of the Bible. Time to hear of his forgiving nature and why he is the redeemer of our sin. I am walking proof of the forgiveness and grace of God. He saved me from my sin and placed in right standing before Himself. Now my eternity is secure.

That’s why I can’t believe the news, because it just doesn’t line up with what I read in Scripture. It doesn’t make sense to believe that we won’t be held responsible for our sin, because the Bible teaches the opposite.

If you have questions, please feel free to leave me a comment, I am happy to share more with anyone who might have questions. Thanks for taking the time to deconstruct some thoughts and hopefully get some clarity on all of this.

AHH!, originally uploaded by shaycam.

As is common on most Easter Sunday’s, they are spent with family. This Easter was no different for me as my sister and her son came to visit us and go to church. Unfortunately we didn’t make it into church because Jason (pictured above) wasn’t feeling well or just wasn’t feeling the new surroundings he was in. But that was OK, we just went to lunch and enjoyed being together.

I was thinking about him (Jason) though, and I sort of came to a funny conclusion. You see, Jason has Down Syndrome. Apparently they say that Down babies are usually the happiest babies. According to my sister that has been true for Jason. Though he’s not quite a baby at 4 years old, he really is a happy kid. But here was my thought. I know that the term “Down” comes from a guy’s last name, but it usually has kind of a negative connotation. For instance, you might say “he is just feeling down right now” about a friend who is maybe sad or frustrated. But this isn’t the case with my nephew. His “Down” doesn’t make him frown. He is a happy little guy. Yeah, sure, he has his moments, but generally he just loves life. He loves to play, just like the other kids. That’s probably why we took him to the park today and just jumped around on the playground. It was a great time, and as you can see above, Jason was loving it too!