26 May Some Things To Consider

Dear Mosaic Family,

I am sure most, if not all of you, have heard about, read about or listened to news updates regarding this week’s mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. The atrocities committed at the elementary school against precious children were perpetrated just ten days following the racially motivated mass murder of patrons at a Buffalo, New York supermarket and nine days following a church shooting in Laguna Woods, California.

As we face this wickedness, many of us are experiencing a myriad of raw emotions. Some of us feel it is impossible to process another senseless trauma. My hope in the midst of all this is that we would not yield to despair and hopelessness, nor forget we are engaged in a spiritual battle. Matthew 5:14 -17 reminds us that we are a “city on hill;” how can we actively be that right now?

1. Lament:
Let’s put to work the primary spiritual discipline God has given us to effectively process our deep hurt, sorrow and grief. Lament is a tool to bring about spiritual, emotional and mental catharsis. Please see this resource for prayers to pray during this time of lamenting.

2. Fast and Pray:
Our land needs to be healed from the continuing gun violence we experience. When the leading cause of death among children and adolescents is gun violence (according to a number of reliable sources including the New England Journal of Medicine), we have more than an anomaly, we have a preventable problem.

James 5 tells us that the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous person avails much. Let’s fast and pray on behalf of the cities of Uvalde, Buffalo and Laguna Woods. Let’s cry out to God in our homes, at our jobs, in our neighborhoods during our walks, while at the gym, while in the car. Let’s unplug, turn off and unsubscribe from as many distractions as possible to hear from God. “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14.

3. Take Care of Ourselves:
Our mental health, and the mental health of those around us, must be continually assessed and prioritized. Mosaic Church offers counseling services by professionally trained and licensed therapists. If you or a loved one is in need of some professional care, please contact one of our counselors or any outside counseling resource you might prefer.

4. Draw Closer to the Gospel Community:
Be intentional about connecting with our spiritual family. Let’s make space to process, share, pray and cover one another. Text or call the people in your Mosaic Community, and the friends you know and love to see how they’re doing, to invite them over to dinner, or offer to pray for them.

5. Serve and Engage:
Let’s stay active in serving our local community and double down on our commitment to care for the city of Austin. One of the ways we can do this is to serve as mentors in our local schools. One factor in some, though not all, mass shootings, is the lack of support teens feel. According to research performed by the Washington Post, seventy percent of school shootings are committed by someone under the age of 18, who either lacks active parents or has been bullied. Mentors can help and mentoring works.

You may know that Mosaic has had a mentor program with a local elementary and middle school for more than a decade, and we will be bringing this back around to your attention in full force as we draw nearer to the fall.

6. Responsible Advocacy:
With respect to the topic of gun legislation, let’s engage with righteous advocacy that results in a prioritization and protection of the imago dei (image of God) and sanctity of life above partisan divisiveness.

For those who affirm the sanctity of ALL human life, and would argue that laws are important to protect the weakest and most vulnerable among us, we must apply a consistent ethic regarding choice and responsibility.

For example, if, on the basis of scriptures like 1 Peter 2:16, we believe that freedom must be paired with responsibility–that Christian freedom is not just “free from,” but “free to,” and therefore the freedom to engage in sexual activity needs to be paired with the extreme responsibility to care for the fruit of that choice– then, in the same way, the freedom to own a weapon, which this nation’s laws grant, needs to be paired with extreme responsibility.

The ugly truth is that as personal irresponsibility and legislative laxity with respect to gun ownership have gone up, so have mass shootings in Texas.

I was taught to shoot both by avid hunters and by those who served our country and understood–too well– what a gun could do.

I was raised in a culture with both an appreciation for firearms and a deep respect for the destructive power of a loaded weapon. Unfortunately, the days of assuming all gun owners share those twin traits seem gone.

Rather than seeking to increase responsibility around our freedoms, there are many in our nation that have sought to minimize responsibility around gun ownership in the same way that others have sought to minimize responsibility around sexual expression.

In both cases, as responsibility for the sake of our neighbor made in the image of God, decreases, death increases. The idea of freedom in any area without limits of any kind is not Biblical; it is, in fact, demonic.

Wherever people insist on maximum freedom with minimal responsibility, you can be sure there is, to use a Bible word, an idol at work.

7. Ask Some Difficult Questions:
A few months ago, there was a report of an active shooter at my children’s school. My children were texting us, begging us to come get them. They were scared, frightened. My wife stood in line with countless other parents and got our children out. In the end, thankfully, it turned out to be a hoax. But for a few agonizing hours, we held our breath and prayed.

But what if it hadn’t been a hoax? What if it had been my kids who were shot and killed that day? Will it have to be our kids, our grandkids, our babies that die by gun violence before we ask ourselves, as Christians, some hard questions?

Of course, I know no one would say that is what we want, and I know this isn’t what you would want, and it’s certainly not what I want.

As a pastor, I do not want to have to officiate funerals for children in my community and look parents in the eye, and say, “Well, nothing is ever going to change.”

These are our children, and it is our responsibility to protect their right to life.

Finally, as grieved, broken and weary as we may be of the seemingly endless darkness, I pray we would be compelled and empowered to shine light in the darkness – a light that the darkness could not overcome – as Christ gives us strength. As we grieve, mourn, and remember those who were taken by violence – as we remember their families and loved ones – I appeal to you to go on the offensive, not cede ground, and find our hope, joy, and rest in Him.

With love and hope,

Morgan