The Heart of the Matter

 Happy Week Two of the New Year!  

How's it going? Still on track with the New Year’s Resolutions you made? Okay, I won’t go there.

Full disclosure, Tony and I have been on a small cruise for the last few days with some church friends. Not a really big trip; just down to "Tazzie", that little island off the bottom of Australia.  I guess technically this blog is coming to you today from even farther away.

I got a lot of good comments last week about Matthew Henry's thoughts on life in general, but still somehow, even on these good, surreal (cruising) days of life, we sometimes have a bit of what David talked about so well in his Psalm 94 (see below). 

We have some friends today who are in a deeply dangerous country where any misstep could lead to what he refers to as "Dread of the Enemy". Every day for them is a challenge as they do what God has called them to do.  He referenced this beautiful psalm as one that he refers to on the worst days. It goes like this:

   “O Lord, how long shall the wicked,

    how long shall the wicked exult?

   They pour out their arrogant words;

    all the evildoers boast.

   They crush your people, O Lord,

    and afflict your heritage.

   They kill the widow and the stranger,

    they murder the orphan …”

Here in Australia, the "Bondi massacres" of 15 Jewish people celebrating Hannukah a few weeks ago is a first of its kind.  The only thing that comes close happened 30 years ago in Tasmania (where we happen to be visiting on this trip), when a single shooter went berserk and killed 24 people and injured 59.   

But that was 30 years ago, and was motivated by personal insanity and not religious hatred like we’re hearing about on the news.

I have to point out that all of Australia only has some 27 million people in total, (fewer than the population of Tokyo) so statistically at least, horrors like this are rare. Understandably, Australia has taken the Bondi shooting VERY HARD. And to make things worse, if that was possible,  is the fact that after the Tasmania massacre 30 years ago, the nation passed some of the toughest gun laws on the planet. “Now,” everyone thought, “we’ll be safe. No guns, no shooting.” 

And I have to say that in our son’s 12-year career as an Australian policeman, he very seldom came up against gun-toting criminals. Of course he was attacked with knives, hatchets and even once a crossbow. But since he carried a gun, the outcome was always the same. “You don’t carry a knife to a gunfight,” he would tell me with a smile. 

But now Australia’s sense of safety has been challenged. We’re discovering here what America and other places have been saying for years: guns don’t kill people; people do. And that brings us to the heart of matter, which is showing us that the real problem in the world is less about what people hold in their hands, and more about what they hold in their heart. 

But then we have to remember King David struggled with the same issues. The beginning of Psalm 94 echoes our own fears and frustrations, but then, finally, David begins to remember.  He tells himself, and then us,

   “If the Lord had not been my help,

    my soul would soon have lived in the land of silence.

   When I thought, ‘My foot is slipping’,

    your steadfast love, O Lord, held me up.

   When the cares of my heart are many,

   your consolations cheer my soul.” 

I hope you'll continue to pray with us that the world will see this truth in God’s Word, embrace it, turn from evil and change our land.  In the meantime, remember that God has your back.

Till next week, when I promise to share some lighter stories!  

Marsha (and Tony of course)



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