God Amidst A Gay Nightclub?

“Where was God?” The country with locked eyes to the screen fumble with the question, tilting between people’s hate and religious questioning.

Did He abandon those bumping and spinning to the music? Was He behind the eyes of terrorist Omar Mateen, as He calmly rejoiced, and shot point blank those he had once associated with?

Was Mateen simply a little boy trying to appease his daddy, who reported hating gays, and according to His religion of extremism, must “do away with the infidels” in the name of religious cleansing?

Was He conflicted? Or was that laugh “like a t.v. villain”, solely evil, taking over his mind?

Was it like the devil himself scavenging the innocent, robbing them from the only place some felt safe to express their gender preferences?

And if God is good, why did he lay out people like bloodied dominoes? Cell phones ringing, going nowhere?

What happened to their souls? What happens when evil reigns in a country build on love, and tolerance?

What about politics, and those speaking to rob this crime, to gain agenda?

What happens now to those lives left in a thousand pieces?

Where was God when shots rang out, and dozens of lives were taken because of one man’s hate?

I listen to the survivor’s testimonies. Those spared from being held captive, those running out to safety…

While those next to them fell like fragile limbs after a storm reeks havoc.

And who gets to say, tomorrow is ours, anyway?

Who gets to guarantee this life, this breathe, the chance that any of us have earned our way to another tomorrow?

Patience – She sits in a chair recovering from gunshot wounds. She shares a poem to the world that talks about, “The guilt of feeling grateful to be alive is heavy.” 

She is poised and eloquent. The pain in her eyes, darts through her every word, piercing the souls of many.

She goes on to tell, “There were hand-prints and blood. I looked the other way, and I could see blood everywhere. Some people were dead, and others were moaning in pain.”

That’s when Patience shares, “I made peace with God. I said, ‘God, if this is how I have to go, please just take my soul from my body.’ I just wanted to close my eyes and let God take me.”

And yet, by grace, she was spared.

Angel – And then, there was the survivor, Angel Colon. He saw the woman on the floor next to him get shot and he told himself, “I’m next. I’m dead”.

But I wonder if his name was a symbol of God’s “angels” protecting him, because he shares next…

“I don’t know how, but by the glory of God, he shoots towards my head but it hits my hand. And then he shoots me again and he hits the side of my hip.”

And we would be blind not to be able to see God’s grace in that?

Joshua – And we might think those were both chance. But then there was Joshua McGill, like the Joshua in the Bible who when all hell broke loose, He was bold and courageous.

He declared to a patron he didn’t know, as he dragged him to safety, and hugged this fellow gun shot victim, “God’s got this. You’ll be OK.”

And how did He know that? How do any of us find a glimmer of hope, when the world turns dark and the smell of gunsmoke fills the air of our lives and hearts?

And we want to hate? We want to turn our frustrations somewhere?

But God shares, “There is hope”, “I am love”, and “Love covers a multitude of sins”.

And even amidst the darkness, grace is seen and experienced by people like Patience, Angel, and Joshua.

Justice – Thirty-year-old Eddie Justice sought shelter in the bathroom when the gunman starting slaughtering people like a game of Halo.

He texted his mom, “I am not going to make it. I am going to die.” And he did.

Justice was among the fifty people who lost their lives and will be remembered.

And why is it, one speaks of hope amidst a terrorist attack, and another knows their fate, even before the shooter and gun, are looking him in the face?

And yet, we think this breath is ours. We think we have the power to choose, as if we are God’s over life and death, when Job 14:5 says…

“You (God) have decided the length of our lives. You know how many months we will live, and we are not given a minute longer.”

And yet, Hezekiah, in Isaiah 38:5 was dying and scripture says….

God heard His prayers, and sent a prophet to Him saying, “I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will add fifteen years to your life.”

And over and over again, God moves the sun, saves the Israelites, rescues God’s people as they cry out to Him.

And isn’t this the thread of grace, the secular media isn’t showing us?

Isn’t this the core grace that has swept down and rescued some, amidst a terrorist attack they shouldn’t have lived through?

Mom’s were praying on the other end of those phone, as people sat in bathrooms, waiting in pools of blood.

Other’s were saved by someone throwing their bullet holed body in front of them. Their lives spared, while another has been lost.

And can’t we see the heart of God, grace, in all of this? The One who sent His son to die, so that each of us can be rescued if we call out to Him?

Like the survivor who came back to save her cousin. The ones who gave up their lives to be the shield for the bullets…

Dying so another can live…

And isn’t that what God’s love is? Being the One who took our sins to the cross, when none of us deserved it? 

“Perfect love is this, He who lays His life down for a friend.” ~  John 15:13

And yet, we must call on Him. We must recognize His authority. We must cry out like Hezekiah acknowledging that his life was given for a purpose…

This breath we take in is His, and it’s Him who has the ability to give it and take it away.

Dorian  – Dorian Wayne, shows the clearest imagine of grace in his declaration after the shooting.

“We were trapped on the back patio in the beginning while shots were being fired. Then there was an opening in the gate that everyone ran towards. As soon as everyone took off for the exit, one by one, we were targeted. People were being hit left and right. I can’t get that image out of my head of just me running for my life and calling out on Jesus.”

And when we run towards God, we can trust we’ll escape danger.

Can’t we see His footprints, stepping through the carnage, even instilling mercy upon the heart of the murdered…

Who says, “African American’s have suffered enough”, so He commits not to shoot any of them.

And when murderers have sympathy, you knows it’s Jesus solely imprinting grace on them.

Bodies flying in front of strangers to protect them, mom’s praying, people dancing and partying one second and calling out to God the next.

Yet, when we reach for Him, He hears us. He listens. He is not far from those who know in their hearts they need Him.

Jesus didn’t leave the people of the Orlando shooting. He was there…

Bloodied footsteps walking through the carnage, ever present with each and every individual taking their last breath.

God is love, and His heart breaks with us at terrorism. But, He promises to draw near anyone who will seek Him. 

Where is God? With Justice, and Patience, and Angel, and us in the aftermath of this heinous act.

He won’t leave us. The question is, “Will we seek Him?”

 “The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.” ~ Psalms 145:18