Security Issues

More tears. This time in DeKalb, Illinois on the campus of Northern Illinois University.

90 students attending an ocean science class in Cole Hall fell prey to a graduate student gunman. Five are dead, 16 additional are wounded, some in critical condition.

What is going on?

How can every venue of social interaction be protected from the onslaught of the delusional, the terrorist, the angry, the mean spirited and those with a twisted sense of 'justice'? How can every access point where people gather to learn, fly, worship, shop, recreate and do business be made 'secure'? In just one week across America, several incidents involving middle and high school students with guns on campus, threatened administrators, teachers and fellow students...some with injury...and then tragedy befalls NIU on Valentine's Day.

Let's quit kidding ourselves. Life has changed in a span of a short half century in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave. Home Alarm system sales have skyrocketed. Neighborhood Watch programs have escalated. Dead bolts are the norm. Gone is the day of going to the store in a quick rush, leaving the front door unlocked as you hurry for that gallon of milk. That day is over.

Husbands intentionally buy cars for their wives with the 'automatic start' feature so that while hustling through the mall parking lot, the car is ready to go as soon as she is buckled in. Armed with a can of mace and just graduated from the local community college course in Self-Defense, while the Mall Security is cruising the lot, you can have confidence that your spouse or child is protected from danger. Really?

"The sheep listen to his voice. He calls His own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice"
John 10:3-4

Did you know that the Bible describes people as 'sheep'? Sheep have interesting characteristics. They can be stubborn. They have about the shortest attention span in all the animal kingdom. They cannot upright themselves should they stumble and fall. They have the speed of frozen honey and are easy targets for predators. They need a shepherd. They must be supervised. They must rely on security provided for them. Again...they need a shepherd.

Did you know that present day nomadic Bedouin shepherds around the Dead Sea lead their flocks each night into the protective shelter of rocky crags, laying down at its entrance? No predator can attack the sheep without first cresting the 'door', and that will not happen...only if the shepherd must lay his own life down for the sake of the sheep he is protecting does an attacker have any chance of harming the sheep.

"I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy; I have come that they (the 'sheep')may have life and have it to the full." John 10:9-10

In the devolving of this culture, where safety and protection has obvious limitations, you can have absolute assurance of your Shepherd's oversight of your heart and life...that is if you have recognized His invitation to 'enter in' to His eternal watch care secured for you by the laying down of His own life for you. If you wonder if you are really loved, if you are skeptical that you matter to anyone much less the God who created you...just look at the Shepherd who for two millenia has received countless 'sheep' into His fold.

Yesterday's Valentine tragedy at NIU reminds us of our need to place our complete trust in Him as the Guardian and Protector of our souls and our eternal destinies, no matter the destructive realities of the enemy's ruthless daily assaults. Entrust yourself to the Great Shepherd today, and pray His shepherding comfort over those who today are drowning in tears of grief.

It is true; 'The Lord is my Shepherd'.