By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector
Lonnie Wilkey
For anyone who lives in this world, last week was tough.
I don’t know what happens in every community in our state and our nation, but I daresay they are similar to Nashville and Memphis. I was in both places last week — metropolitan Memphis for the Summit in Millington and then back to Nashville.
When you turned to the news in either city, you were greeted with some sort of bad news and it usually involved someone being shot and/or killed in the greater viewing area.
And it happened again over the weekend in Scottsville, Ky., a small community about an hour or so from Nashville. A 7-year-old girl disappeared during the local high school football game and an hour later she was found dead in a nearby creek, the victim of a suspected homicide.
Upon returning home I encountered an unpleasant surprise. When I left for an early morning prayer breakfast with friends and then work, I found someone had gotten into my truck and ransacked it. To my knowledge nothing was stolen but it was unnerving to know that “my space” had been violated while I was gone and that intruders had been in my backyard while my wife was home. The potential thief or thieves got into my truck because I made the mistake of thinking it was safe because it was parked in my own backyard. I had left the door unlocked. Lesson learned. We hear reports weekly of homes which were actually broken into and people even shot in their homes. I will take a ransacked truck any day. We were blessed.
Then came the news on Friday (Nov. 13) of the terrorist attacks in Paris. Baptist Press reported the following day that there were at least 129 killed and 350 people wounded.
One worker in Paris with the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention made this observation which is truly frightening for those of us who consider ourselves ordinary people: “These were not shootings in dark neighborhoods, not government targets, not military quarrels. Rather, the shootings and bombings today happened in the places of Paris in which life occurs every day: cafés, restaurants, the stadium, a concert hall. The purpose was clear: death, pain, and terror.”
Americans can identify with the feelings in France. Though it has been 14 years since 9/11 the memories of that day will forever be etched in the minds of those who are old enough to remember.
So, we live in a state, nation, and world filled with murder and terrorism. We live in communities where we can’t even leave our vehicles unlocked. With Thanksgiving just around the corner next week, how can we truly be thankful?
The reason we can still give thanks when the world appears to be falling apart all around us is simple. God is still in control. Nothing happened last week that God didn’t know about first. It’s easy to blame God, but God gave man the gift of free will and we have abused it over the centuries. We have allowed Satan to gain a stronghold and sin is rampant. It’s not God’s fault. It is the fault of Christians over the course of time who have allowed our nation and world to drift so far from God.
The reason we can give thanks to God next week and mean it is that because of His Son, Jesus Christ, we have hope for the future. I have used this verse countless times, but it is so true today: “These things I have spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33, KJV).
Take heart Tennessee Baptists. We can be thankful on Thanksgiving Day (and every other day for that matter) because God is God and He’s on His throne regardless of world circumstances.
Next week, we can thank God for all the blessings He has given us — family, friends, health, jobs, whatever it may be — because He gave us His all, His one and only Son, Jesus Christ.
Happy Thanksgiving!
