“…the LORD God formed man out of the clay of the ground and
blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and so man became a living being.” Genesis 2:7
“But what comes out of a person, that is what defiles. From within people,
from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy,
blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within and they
defile.” Mark 7:20-23
Piety
"It is from numberless
diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped each time a man
stands up for an ideal or acts to improve the lot of others or strikes out
against injustice he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other
from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a
current that can sweep down the mightiest wall of oppression and
resistance."
Robert F. Kennedy, South
Africa, 1966
Study
More tortuous than anything is the human heart, beyond
remedy; who can understand it? (Jeremiah
17:9)
God did all the work of
creation and we got all the freedom.
Maybe things would not have been so interesting throughout human history
if God had gone one step further and removed from us the propensity to
sin. We would have no murder of the Archduke
Ferdinand kicking off World War I. No
adultery would rob our literature of Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter and Tolstoy’s
Anna Karenina. Without greed, there
would be no Great Train Robbery, no Bonnie and Clyde, no Jesse James Gang.
Life would have been more
refined without the freedom to act in these sinful ways. However, then we would not have the freedom
to choose God who breathes life into us all.
Action
"Some men see things as they are and ask 'Why?' I
dream things that never were and ask, 'Why not?'" (Robert F.
Kennedy, 1968)
With the death of Kayla Mueller
during her extended imprisonment in captivity, we hear the story of an activist
who was not content to see things as they are and leave them alone. We hear how she dedicated her short but
inspiring life to asking “Why not?”
She walked right into some of the harshest places
to try to sow love. We may not have
definitive evidence of how she died, but we do know how she lived. She used her freedom to choose God and to
choose life. “Kayla has touched the
heart of the world,” said her aunt Lori Lyon, speaking on behalf of the family.
We may never understand why she went into Syria when
it was a “no-go” zone for humanitarian workers during the height of the
crisis. We may never understand what is
in the hearts of those who have captured and killed many innocent aid workers
and others. However, we do know that Kayla
Mueller not only worked for justice but encouraged others to get involved as
well. Let her example inspire our
action.
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