last night, i had a glass of wine and split a caprese salad with my friend christina while our kids were at a church program.  (secretly, we were supposed to be watching a women’s bible study video, but we skipped. luckily, we are grown ups and there are no longer attendance requirements!)

during dinner, we started talking about the recent killing of 21 christians by ISIS militants.  i, of course, have not been following it very closely because i try to avoid all things unpleasant.  as she was explaining the situation to me, she was pointing out that everyone has been talking about how sad it is for the CHRISTIANS who were killed when really it is the KILLERS for whom we should feel sadly.   and over a tomato and a smooshed grape, i thought “she is EXACTLY right”.

here’s the thinking.  if what i believe is true (which clearly i think it is), then the christians have just won it.  they are with jesus.  in heaven.  in fact, God confirms this when paul writes in phillipians 1:21 that “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”  so they have gained.  now they only know grace, love and peace.   we can certainly be sad for their families and pray that it doesn’t happen again, but, for those 21, the fight is over. and they win.  

those who are doing the killing, though, are truly oppressed.  they do not know grace or love or peace that comes from knowing the Lord.   they are looking for meaning by killing and hurting and meanness, and i bet they feel emptier and emptier rather than fuller and fuller.   as they seek righteousness and peace, they get further and further away from it.  they have no connection to the prince of peace, to the one who made them fearfully and wonderfully.  they have no idea that someone loved them enough to send His son for them.   they don’t know.

you know i have a total thing for corrie ten boom.  she lived in holland during WWII, and she and her sister were put into a concentration camp for hiding jews.   her father was killed.  in her book, a hiding place, she writes about how her sister would look around the camp and her heart would break.    but her heart wasn’t breaking for those in the camp.  it broke for those RUNNING it.   because she knew that they were the FURTHEST from love, peace and grace.  she, and the others in the camp, could rest in the love of Jesus for them and the peace that passes all understanding.   but not them.

i am not saying that violence be condoned.   or encouraged.  i am certainly not saying that we should not be praying EVERY MINUTE that this ends and that all Christians in the world are safe.  we should ABSOLUTELY be doing that.  but i think that we should not forget that we are called to love our enemies.   to pray for them.   to worry about them.  even when that seems like the exactly wrong thing to do.

in fact, even jesus agrees with me.  in matthew 5, he says, “…You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”  he didn’t call us to rise up in righteous anger.  he called us to LOVE.

actually, speaking of paul, he is a great example of just that.  he started as a religious person who was involved in killing christians.  sound familiar?  the man who wrote most of the new testament was actually one of the guys watching as they stoned steven.  he was JUST LIKE those who were killing today.  he was serving a god as he understood it even if that meant violence and persecution.  and look at the plan God had for him.  think of what he could have on tap for some of these guys.  if only they could find Him.

so, here is what i think i need to do.  pray for those that are persecuting and those who are persecuted.  pray that those who are wielding violence and death would meet He who will extend grace to them.  that they will know that they are righteous not through their ability to make war but just by accepting grace.   that they would know that He loves them and that they don’t have to destroy to earn his approval.  even if it would seem to take an OCEAN of grace, there is enough.   there are, in fact, oceans of grace.  enough for me and enough for them.  even if it feels wrong to pray for them, i need to be love to them. even when i would rather not.

i encourage you to do the same.  if you don’t pray, just send good vibes their way.  if you aren’t a good vibe sender, think of a way to love they unlovable however that looks in your world.

in fact, this determination could go even further.  if we can love those who are actively torturing and killing people, think how we could love all the less evil enemies.  how we can love our enemy in SOME way even if that enemy is just the guy in the car in front of you who just cut you off.  imagine what a difference we will make.