Do we rejoice?

The question has been posed to me a couple of times now. How do we respond to the death of Osama bin Ladin? Do we rejoice? Should we rejoice?

Facebook is filled with cheers and parades and gloating as if the entire internet world was the one to have pulled the trigger. I do not know what I feel, what I should feel. As an American, shouldn't I be jubilant? That this man who has caused so much heartache in our country got what he deserved? Shouldn't I feel as if justice has been served? Shouldn't I feel safer, because this threat to our very existence has been taken out? I should. But I don't. I feel sadness.

Sad.
That I would even want to feel jubilant at a man's death. I don't know that we should ever rejoice at death, regardless of the life that was lived.

Sad.
Because I know where he is now. You may say he deserved it, and this is probably true. But I am not the judge. Thankfully so. And as hard as it is, I have to believe that God's offer of salvation really does extend to the worst of these. Shouldn't we mourn every time someone rejects his offer of salvation? It's not an idea I necessarily enjoy, or fully understand. Salvation for someone whose life was filled with so much evil? Doesn't seem to be right.
I've lived my whole life as a Christian. And you want to tell me that had he confessed with his mouth and believed in his heart that he would be in heaven with me someday? I deserve it. Don't I? Nay, friend. Nor I or he deserve salvation. But the offer extends to us both. I'm not saying he is in heaven. No, I do not think there were virgins and a land of paradise waiting for him. I think he found out that Hell is very real. But do I rejoice over this? Facebook seems to tell me I should. Many of my fellow Americans are.

My heart does not rejoice. I don't know if it should, but it does not.

Sad.
That there would be a life so evil I would even consider rejoicing over its ending. Be glad heart! A man is dead, and beginning an eternity of torment and being separate from God! Be Glad! No, heart. It does not feel right to even pretend to tell you to be glad. I do not rejoice. But he caused so much pain and suffering. He was truly evil. Mourn then, heart, not for a life lost to a bullet, but for a life lost somewhere along the way. For what must have happened in that life, for a mind to become so twisted and evil? That it could justify the heinous acts it committed? Mourn, for the broken life that would lead to so much death and destruction.
No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite. -Nelson Mandela
But why was it hate and not love that was taught? Love comes more naturally. Why wasn't it love? Why was this man so filled with hate? Where is a life lost along the way? And why was it not helped?


Safer. They say we should feel safer. Safer because of one man's death? In a world filled with violence, and evil, and hurting? Look around you. We live in a broken, twisted, evil world. You don't even have to look much beyond your front door to see pain and suffering and unspeakable violence. And one man's death will save us? I don't think I believe that. One man's death already saved us. Perhaps we are safer from the harm one man could cause. But there will be another. And we will grieve some other tragedy. Evil is in this world. It did not leave with the death of Bin Ladin. Some evil did, yes. But Satan is still fighting. He will find another foothold somewhere.
No, I do not feel safer. There is evil all around us. At no cause of Bin Ladin.

No, I do not rejoice. Heart, what do you feel then? Sadness. An incredible depth of sadness, for all the broken lives in our world. Grieve, heart. For all of them. For everyone who rejects His gift. For every broken heart, life, community. For a broken world.

Nay, I do not rejoice.