More than 90 people are killed by gun violence every day in this country. What if one of you said, 'Go in peace! Stay warm! Have a nice meal!' What good is it if you don't actually give them what their body needs? In the same way, faith is dead when it doesn't result in faithful activity." (James 2:14-17) "Claiming to have faith can't save anyone, can it? Imagine a brother or sister who is naked and never has enough food to eat. In fact, scripture explicitly reminds us that faith without works isn't much. Jesus did not simply call us to believe but to go into the world. It's a time of prayer, but it's also a time of action. Still others opt to participate in a new Bible study or take up a new spiritual discipline. Others refrain from social media or cursing. It's an intentional time of acknowledging that we're not perfect and confronting our failures.Īs a part of marking the season of repentance, some fast or give up a particular food. But as people of faith, we are called to be in an active relationship with each other and with God.Īround the world, Christians have entered into the season of Lent - a 40-day period in which we struggle with our doubts and our humanity. God replied, "I sent you a bus, a boat and a helicopter." After the man died, he asked God: "Where were you? Why didn't you save me?" "The Lord will save me," the man said as the water rose above his knees, his chest, and then his head. If we're honest with ourselves, we passed this point long before a gunman walked into a Florida high school, even before a gunman walked into an elementary school in Connecticut. It's checking a box as though the offerer is absolved from further action or duty.Īt some point, we become like the man turning down the help of those who came to his aid as the flood waters rose. And for too many people the offering of "thoughts and prayers" means little. Not long after the first alerts came the offerings of thoughts and prayers. The headlines, alerts and tweets appeared on my screen - again. Trayvon, 17, was shot on February 26 by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer in a suburb of Orlando, Florida. Tracy Martin, father of Florida shooting victim Trayvon Martin, wipes his brow next to Trayvon's mother Sybrina Fulton at a public forum on their son's case, on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 27, 2012.
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