Remembering Uvalde One Year Later

This morning, a year after the slaughter of innocents in Uvalde, I had the honor and privilege of preaching at our weekly Wednesday church service at the homeless ministry I work at here in Dallas. I came out of the book of Habakkuk, one of the Old Testament minor prophets. Habakkuk is disgusted and disturbed by the wickedness, violence, and evil he witnesses going on all around him. In his spiritual consternation, Habakkuk cries out to God.

How long, O Lord, must I call for help?But you do not listen!“Violence is everywhere!” I cry,but you do not come to save. Must I forever see these evil deeds?Why must I watch all this misery?Wherever I look,I see destruction and violence.I am surrounded by peoplewho love to argue and fight. The law has become paralyzed,and there is no justice in the courts. The wicked far outnumber the righteous, so that justice has become perverted.
Habakkuk 1:2-4 (NLT)

Habakkuk’s words, spoken roughly 600 years before Christ, remind me of a sound byte from the evening news.

A year after innocent children were murdered in their elementary school, nothing has changed. Parents anywhere and everywhere are no closer to keeping their children free from maniacal acts of violence.

I don’t know about you, but this breaks my heart. We’re better than this. Surely, parents shouldn’t have to pray that their children survive the school day with their lives intact? Surely not, right?

It’s clear, that just like in Habakkuk’s day, we need Jesus. We desperately need to turn from doing what is right in our own eyes, according to our own pleasures, and return to living a life focused on loving God and loving our neighbors.

Uvalde, we’ve failed you. And a thousand million sorries aren’t enough to heal your hurt. Our apologies won’t bring your children back. We’re better than this. I know it. We are, aren’t we?

With abundant mercies and grace,

Rainer Bantau

The Devotional Guy™