When the Looting Starts.....

“When the looting starts, the shooting starts,” President Trump

“We are a nation in pain, but we must not allow this pain to destroy us. We are a nation enraged, but we cannot allow our rage to consume us. We are a nation exhausted, but we will not allow our exhaustion to defeat us,” Joe Biden

The two quotes above, spoken by the president and former vice-president regarding the turmoil in our cities, have generated as much debate as have the protests themselves.

One must presume that both men care deeply about this nation or they would be using their later years for enjoying the fruits of their years of labor rather than having any interest in the most demanding job in the world.

President Trump, the wealthiest leader the country has ever had, could be luxuriating at Mar-a-Lago rather than securing in a bunker at the White House. Joe Biden could be the grand old man of Delaware after serving as its senator for decades and ascending to the role of vice president for the previous administration.

But, both men, septuagenarians, are sacrificing the years when most would be in retirement to rise up to the challenges of the day. What motivates them?

As president, Donald Trump has endured relentless criticism from the left-leaning media since before he took the oath of office. He has been subjected to more scrutiny than the combined examination of all his predecessors. He has been mocked and vilified.

Joe Biden enjoys the support of the media and the respect that is denied the current office-holder but one still must wonder why a man approaching 80 years of age would subject himself to the rigor of high office. Perhaps it is because being a breath away from the seat of power for eight years compels a man to want to occupy it.

Whatever their reasons, we must respect them for their willingness to sacrifice the years when most would sit back and enjoy the fruit of their labors for a cause greater than themselves--whether or not we agree with their points of view.

And that brings us back to the quotes at the top of this post.

With which man would you stand regarding their views of the nation's (the world's) response to the murder of George Floyd?

I speak as only one person when I say, "Both."

While I might find Joe Biden's words to be admirable and though they might be reflective of my own outrage for the unconscionable treatment a man, a fellow citizen, a brother in Christ, were it my business, my home, my life's savings that were in jeopardy because of the protests that have become violent, I might want the government to step in.

My opinion may mean nothing in the large scheme of things. My tears for George Floyd may simply roll into the Sea of Sorrow that we must weep for the injustice that destroyed his life. Hatred and retaliation will not restore his life or guarantee rights to all citizens, regardless of the color of their skin.

Anyone old enough to have been alive in the 60s and cognizant of the events of those days is aware that burning and looting are not new to this terrible blot upon our nation. And those old enough to remember know the violent response to injustice do not solve the matter.

Police brutality, like the outrage it generates, come not because of a lack of laws. Police personnel are trained in the skill of prisoner restraint--and that training is designed to do just that -- restrain, not kill.

Protestors have every right to demand that their voice against injustice rise up to be heard, but loud voices do not destroy the labor of other people's lives.

The thoughts expressed here are nothing but the pondering of an old woman whose heart is broken because the evil events of her youth still beset her grandchildren's generation.

Yet I understand that in the decades of my life, the heart of man has not changed. The reign of evil over mankind has not been unseated. The Biblical truth that the evil one "comes to steal, kill and destroy" is still true.

But, another truth yet remains. There is a Savior who has sacrificed Himself so each of us who are dead in trespasses and sin can be "washed in the blood of the Lamb."

As we do that -- one person at a time -- we will make our small corner of this fallen planet a little more like the Heaven we want to attain, the Heaven where George Floyd now reigns with the Jesus to whom he gave his life.