Aurora

The shooting at Aurora was an atrocity. It was something we can’t imagine anyone doing and something we can’t imagine being caught up in. It was wrong, awful, horrible, disgusting, and insert more adjectives here.

And yet despite all the evil, today humanity redeems itself. I’ve come across two stories today of people loving the victims through this hard time. I came across the first one this morning on Nerd Approved:

Actor Christian Bale, who played Batman in The Dark Knight Rises, made a surprise trip to Aurora, Colorado to visit victims of the shooting that happened at a midnight showing of the film last week. Warner Brothers confirmed that Bale did this on his own and was not representing the studio on the trip. He spent a little over two hours at the hospital visiting with patients, staff, and some of the first responders. Nicely done, Mr. Bale.

Now I saw a few people posting on Facebook this past week that they hoped Christian Bale would show up at the hospital dressed as Batman. I thought that might be a bit cheesy, but it was a cool sentiment. However, I did not expect Christian Bale to get anywhere near the scene. I figured that if he did the media would be all over the place and he would be surrounded by cameras left and right.

I kind of learned this yesterday. I was at a TobyMac concert in Adrian, MI when last minute I was offered a chance to meet the Christian-music-sensation himself. And while TobyMac is like my childhood hero and I’ve always wanted to talk with him, I felt kind of guilty about meeting him. Why? Because there were about 60 people in this line to meet him and there was probably only supposed to be around 5. Now the last time I had gotten close to meeting him there was security all around him and people following him. It was basically idolization. That memory come back into me as I was waited in this long line to meet him, knowing that he probably didn’t expect so many people and after playing music for decades, may not have had the patience to meet so many before the show. From my knowledge, he doesn’t usually stick around and sign autographs after a concert. This usually happens because you’ve become too famous to be able to breathe when you do come out to meet people.

But despite my guilt, I stayed in the line and got a quick picture with him to brag about, struggling with idolization in my mind for most of the time.

Or I think of actor Jeff Daniels who lives over in Chelsea where I lived for a few years. People always told me that he had a hard time being in public because people would treat him as a celebrity rather than a person. And if he did say that, he was right. The few times I was in the same room with him I couldn’t stop myself from constantly turning my gaze towards him.

Now imagine Batman himself showing up at a hospital. I think that requires a lot of heart as I’m sure people probably flocked to him in one way or another, wanting autographs and wanting to take time to talk to him.

We have an addiction to celebrities and so props to Christian Bale for doing what he did.

In other news, I also read this today on Relevant Magazine’s webpage:

3 of the 4 hospitals that the victims of the Colorado movie theater shootings have been staying in have chosen to either limit or totally erase their medical bills, which is just a very nice gesture. Warner Bros, who have come into a bit of money recently, have also donated a $2 million to the victims. Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper has also set up a fund to help the victims with their short term and long term medical bills, which you can donate to here …

On top of this I even heard that movie distributors withheld their weekend box office money in respects to what had happened in Aurora.

Again, it’s good to see the good in people and I think we are seeing it more and more today as social justice is becoming a hot topic with today’s youth. We want to see the world changed and people loved through their pain; from the earthquakes of Haiti to the capture of Joseph Kony.

Which brings me to the hard part.

As Christians we are called to love everyone. We are called to hope for everyone. We are called to desire forgiveness on everyone’s life—for the victims—as well as for the victimizer.

Can you, as a Christian hope for love and forgiveness in the Aurora shooter’s heart?

• After King Manasseh had held an incredibly hellish reign over Israel, God forgives him and he turns his life around.
• Jesus turns to a criminal on the cross next to him and welcomes him into paradise.
• Jesus extends forgiveness to His own murderers saying, “forgive them for they know not what they do.”
• Jesus extends love and forgiveness and hope to you in the worst possible state you could be in.

Right before I started writing this post, I came across a story in Gregory Boyd’s book, The Present Perfect. At the end of chapter 3, Boyd talks about a murder he heard about in which a three year old boy was murdered. He was incredibly upset about it and later that night he was given an image (a vision, if you will) of a man locking his son in a dark closet. The boy wanted out so badly and was afraid of the dark, but the father kept him trapped in there. Boyd was confused as to why he was seeing this as he imagined it was the young boy who had just been murdered. What good was there praying for a dead boy?

God then showed him that this boy in the closet wasn’t the boy who had been murdered—this boy was the man who murdered him.

God is the perfect judge. He knows every little thing about every single person in the universe. He knows what makes us tick and why we do the things we do. I’m not saying that this makes our evil right—by no means am I saying that! What I am saying is that we need to let God be the judge of this shooter and love this man to Christ—no matter how evil his actions may have been.

I side with a tweet Boyd made this past Monday.

Lord, bless the family & friends of those slain in Aurora, and reveal your love & forgiveness to your precious child who slew them.

And just so we’re all clear, I understand perfectly well that it’s easier for me to hope this for the shooter when I’m not directly related to the incident. I do not mean in any way to downplay the hurt and pain this man has caused in anyone’s life. I just hope for love and forgiveness for him.