The shock of July 22, 2011, started at 3:25 p.m. when a car bomb was detonated next to the government building housing the prime minister’s office in central Oslo. Thirty were injured and eight people died just because they worked that day. We were glued to the TV screen as the horror unfolded. Less than two hours after the bomb, reports started coming in that something was happening at Utøya where youth belonging to Norway’s ruling party have a summer camp. Someone dressed as a police officer was there shooting. In 70 minutes 66 were injured and 69 people dead on Utøya.
The story kept unfolding in the Norwegian media as we struggled to decide how a peace-loving government and mild judicial system should punish this form of terror. What punishment could possibly be hard enough? There are no simple answers. Evil in any and all forms is unnatural. We were created to be loved, to live in harmony with each other and with God. So when we face evil, it unsettles us, because we know that it is not supposed to be there.
Yet we also find it in ourselves, don’t we? The apostle Paul and I are not the only ones who battle with self, who “have the desire to do what is good, but . . . cannot carry it out” (Rom. 7:18). We know evil is, well, evil. Yet we find it in ourselves.
This is why it is so hard to pass judgment—even on a mass murderer. And rightly so. For he no more knew what he was doing than did Roman soldiers 2,000 years ago as they crucified Jesus. Jesus did not condemn them, but He asked God to forgive them. Usually Jesus did the pardoning, but on that day He asked His Father to do it.
I have come to believe that this is a prayer God inspired for our benefit. When evil is too great, when it is so much a part of us that we see no way out, when we cannot forgive ourselves and others, God can. And will. Praise God!
Me
I had my teenage rebellion. I was there with the best (or worst) of them, doing my own thing, sending my parents to their knees to plead God’s promise that their daughter would come back from the enemy’s territory (Jer. 31:16, 17).
Looking back, I see that a combination of factors made me rebel: feeling unloved and insecure, believing that it is “just what teenagers do,” and thinking (and expressing, I am afraid!) that the adults in church were all hypocrites.
I decided not to do as they did. I wanted to be honest about my rebellion and unbelief. The rest, as they say, is history! But now, whatever the future holds, I do not intend to go back. I will stay honest, acknowledging my sinfulness and claiming God’s grace.
Why do I tell you this? Because we can learn from each other. And what I want you to learn from my life are these two important lessons:
1. Do not judge—Anders Breivik has boasted of his virtue in slaughtering scores of people. And yet, who knows the whole story of this twisted soul? I do not. Indeed, who of us knows the whole story about any of the rest of us? So even in the midst of this awkward, dismaying tragedy, there may yet be room for Christian caution. Gossip and judgmental attitudes are closely related. Both are self-righteous, and both are wrong. Why not make the effort to restrain your caustic wit? We are all God’s lost children in need of God’s forgiveness and redeeming love.
2. Pray and expect God’s answer. His promises are for you, and for those you love. He plans “to prosper you and not to harm you, . . . to give you hope and a future” (Jer. 29:11).
My hope, Breivik’s hope, Norway’s hope, human hope, lies solely in God’s free mercy.
Matthew 20:1-16
I am thinking about the workers. Well, actually, the ones who really wanted to work; the ones who spent the whole day at the marketplace. Waiting; wanting to feed their families; wanting to make a difference.
That is the condition these people found themselves in. They wanted to earn their living in a fair way. They did not steal, beg, or borrow. They were up before the sun, kissed their wives goodbye, hoping to bring them food and money when the day was over. Going to the marketplace, meeting others just like them. Standing. Waiting.
They could have gone home at the tenth hour; no one would have faulted them! It would have been totally understandable, maybe even predictable. But they didn’t give up! They continued to ask for work from those rich-looking men passing by. Disappointment after disappointment.
Do you long for an opportunity to work? Maybe you have a job but long to work for God? You may have pleaded Jabez’ prayer until you were blue in the face, yet nothing has happened. It seems God’s answer is that your territory is large enough. Take courage! David also pleaded for more work. Specifically, he pleaded with God to allow him to build the Temple. But God said no. And then He said something wonderful: “You wanted to build the Temple to honor my name. Your intention is good” (see 1 Kings 8:18). Even when our wonderful Lord in His infinite wisdom says no to our requests, He will still say, “Well done, good and faithful servant. I know where your heart is!”
Heaven
I heard the queen of Denmark talk about all the history to which she had a front seat. Now more than 70 years of age, she has lived an impressive life. But the thing that impressed me most was her description of her feelings after the fall of the Berlin Wall. She described how, in the days and months that followed, she suddenly stopped, surprised at the lightness she felt around her heart, the joy and the peace she felt. Then she remembered the very real threat that had once been so close to her country was gone. She says she now realizes that the threat had become so “everyday” that she, in a way, had gotten used to it. Now that it was gone, she sensed the weight it had been. That’s where the lightness came from.
In the same way, we are sometimes oblivious to the threat that sin poses. We live our lives encompassed by evil that wants to win us over, capture us, and destroy us. We even adjust to and accommodate this threat.
How will it feel in heaven? The horrors we have spent our whole lives with will be gone—no more mass murder, no more rebellious teenagers, no more unemployment. That ugly, separating wall of sin and all its consequences will be forever gone. At last we shall be able to live at peace with ourselves, in harmony with each other, and with God: “I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, ‘Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever’ ” (Rev. 21:4, NLT).*
What joyful, wonderful news this is!
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* Scripture quotations credited to NLT are from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
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Vibeke Waern is a Danish freelance writer who lives in Norway with her husband and son. Vibeke has a passion for the Adventist church and its message, and she longs to know Jesus more and still more. This article was published May 17, 2012.
