Last night I nestled down to watch Zero Dark Thirty. About five minutes in, I realized it wasn’t exactly a ‘nestle-down’ kind of movie. The movie is about the hunt for Osama Bin-Laden.
This afternoon I settled into my three-hour class. About five minutes in, I realized it wasn’t exactly a ‘settle-into’ kind of class. The lecture was on the Holocaust.
Halfway through the class, things got even more unsettling as news of the Boston Marathon bombing leaked its way in through text messages, Facebook statuses, and news reports (don’t worry, I live about 25 miles north of the city and was well out of harms way).
It’s been twenty-four hours of being reminded that there is evil in this world, and it’s been twenty-four hours of contemplating what my response needs to be toward such events.
While the past tragedies and horror seem far off and distant, the one today was closer to home. Friends were calling friends who were running in or watching the marathon. Stories slowly began to surface of how people left the spot of the bombing just moments before they went off, or how, for whatever reason, there were decisions to not go to the marathon for the first time in years at the last minute. Little decisions. Little decisions that can change everything.
Our lecturer today asked us to consider how we ought to respond in the face of evil.
I’ve been thinking a lot about how we do respond and how we should respond.
It’s a lot to take in.
And while it’s easy to brush off past events because they aren’t often slapping us in the face, I think it’s vital for us to be aware. It’s shocking, it’s horrifying, it’s unbelievable… but it happened. It’s happening. Terror, despair, confusion, mass chaos caused by fear of explosions, raids, lives being taken…
There is evil in this world.
What is our response?
What should our response be?
Think about it.