We all woke up this morning feeling violated. Senseless, incomprehensible, bloody images greeted us in our newspapers and on our smart phones and computers. To some it felt very close. To others, it may have seemed far away only because we didn’t want to let it in. It seemed far away to me until my wife reminded me that if we still lived in the Boston area, our daughter could very well have been running in that marathon. And though it was far away on the other side of the country, just this last weekend, our son represented the L.A.P.D. along with other participating police departments in a benefit relay race across Nevada and California. Suddenly it wasn’t so far away.
Running races are always championing the human spirit, often raising funds for worthy causes and just generally spreading good will and encouragement to all who participate from the first to the last. To besmirch an event of such neighborliness and collaboration is an evil of exceptional depth. It violates any sense of justice we might have.
I was also greeted this morning with a story Jesus told his disciples “to illustrate their need for constant prayer and to show them that they must never give up.” In the story, a widow kept after a judge “who was a godless man with great contempt for everyone” to appeal for justice against someone who had harmed her. The woman kept after this judge so much so that she wore him out until he granted her justice just to get rid of her. Then Jesus said, “Learn a lesson from this evil judge. Even he rendered a just decision in the end, so don’t you think God will surely give justice to his chosen people who plead with him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, He will grant justice to them quickly! But when I, the son of Man, return, how many will I find who have faith” (Luke 18:1-8 NLT)?
Cry out to the Lord for justice to be done in Boston, Massachusetts. Cry out to the Lord for justice to be done in your life, and know that a compassionate, understanding God will hear you and do something about it. Indeed, He has already done something about it in that He endured another senseless, incomprehensible, bloody day when His only son suffered and died on a cross, so that evil like what happened in Boston yesterday might never have the last word.
John Fischer The Catch 
“This is my Father’s world
Oh let me ne’er forget
That though the wrong seems oft so strong
God is the ruler yet.
This is my Father’s world
The battle is not done
Jesus who died, will be satisfied
And Earth and Heaven be one.”
This morning while doing my devotions of reading and praying about all the red letter Jesus utterances in the gospels, my place was exactly at the passages that talk about loving your enemies. (Matthew 5:43 – 48; Luke 6:27 – 36). Justice…. yes, but revenge….no!)
Beth Moore says the following, “The very nature of love is sacrificial. In fact if we are not presently feeling the squeeze and sacrifice of loving, we’re probably excercising a preferential highly selective, self centered substitute. Not only have we been called to live sacrificial love. At times we may also expend untold self sacrificing efforts for years and even for the rest of our lives without seeing any apparent fruit.
God has called us to love even when::
1. We don’t want to
2. We don’t feel like it
3. We get nothing obvious in return
4. They don’t deserve it
5. They’re not worth it
6. They don’t even know it
7. It makes no difference
Unless you are not getting out enough, I am sure God is confronting you with the challenge to love someone right now who brings out most of these feelings in you.
Mind you, loving sacrificially does not equal subjecting ourselves to untold abuses. God does not ask us to sacrifice sanity. He calls us to sacrifice selfishness.
This quote is on a 3×5 card that I keep on my desk. I read it often, because I am a vengeful person and I don’t want to be.
This, from Chuck Swindoll’s Devotional this morning (4-17):
God Reigns Over All
by Charles R. Swindoll
Stop and think for a moment about the word sovereignty. There’s a small word nestled in the heart of it, the word reign: sov-reign-ty.
Sovereignty means our all-wise, all-knowing God reigns in realms beyond our comprehension to bring about a plan beyond our ability to alter, hinder, or stop.
Let me go further. His plan includes all promotions and demotions. His plan can mean both adversity and prosperity, tragedy and calamity, ecstasy and joy.
His plan is at work when we cannot imagine why, because it is so unpleasant, as much as when the reason is clear and pleasant. His sovereignty, though it is inscrutable, has dominion over all handicaps, all heartaches, all helpless moments.
Even when we cannot explain the reasons, He understands.
And when we cannot see the end, He is there, nodding, “Yes, that is My plan.”
Man’s steps are ordained by the LORD, how then can man understand his way?
Proverbs 20:24