1 John 3:11-14

1 John 3:11-14
Contemporary English Version (CEV)

 So it was a bit of a crazy day in Columbus yesterday.  In the middle of the workday I learned that someone was running around with a butcher knife trying to stab people just around the corner from where I was in class last year.  A police officer shot the assailant, and it was a strange sensation to think that it was good news that people were only stabbed, none fatally, rather than shot.  It is a sign of how immune we become to the violence that swirls around us, intoxicating us to the steady shock of violence that streams in from around the world.  There is hatred aplenty to go around.
  Here we stand, as Christians, followers of a Savior who ascended the cross and absorbed the world's violence so that peace would ultimately prevail.  In the face of the world's hatred, we speak a language of peace that transcends war, of peace that transcends chaos.  We point to the light when the darkness presses in, and we reveal an empty tomb when death lurks.
  So let us not be surprised at the violence and hatred of the world.  May we in turn surprise the world by reacting in love to the ever-present violence, showing that love triumphs over all.