The second global event in 4 days (that I paid attention to anyways...)

I woke up this morning to a text from Nathan saying Osama bin Laden had been killed by U.S. Forces. It's probably the most bizarre way I have ever been greeted in the morning. How weird to read those words. Because I don't keep up much with the news, I hadn't really heard anything about Osama bin Laden since like high school. After reading the text and thinking it was great they finally caught him, my next move was to check out Facebook. Partly because checking out the latest on my phone while still in bed is part of my wake-up routine and partly because I honestly hear the most about what's going on in the world through Facebook (shameful, I know). And of course, there were boatloads of status updates and news article postings about it from my "friends." I was shocked at how many had used the words "glad" and "dead" in the same sentence. I sat there thinking something didn't feel right about these people's reaction. I shrugged it off since I had to hurry up and get to Mannheim Elementary. During my lunch break though, I got on Facebook again. More glad + dead statuses. But also a few Scripture postings that were obvious comments on the recent events. Scripture such as Matthew 5:43-47: " 'You have heard that it was said, "Love your neighbor and and hate your enemy." But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you... If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the pagans doing that?'" ( I will thank Miss Kristin Wood for that one!) And also Proverbs 24:17: "Do not gloat when your enemy falls; when he stumbles, do not let your heart rejoice..." Those two Scriptures alone are quite convicting and obviously are contradictory to what some people are celebrating. However, in reading a commentary on the verse in Proverbs, I came across this verse: "The godly will rejoice when they see injustice avenged. They will wash their feet in the blood of the wicked." (Psalm 58:10) Nasty picture, for sure, but it helped me come to this conclusion: As Christians, we are not to rejoice in Osama's (or anyone else's) death, but we are definitely to rejoice in the justice that was served today. God is love and God is justice. The loving aspect is saddened by the evil choices a man made and that his choices had to lead to such an end, but the justice aspect realizes he deserved punishment, which was death, for those choices. I read a quote from Obama that I agree with (very rare): "Bin Laden was not a Muslim leader. He was a mass murderer... So his demise should be welcomed by all who believe in peace and human dignity." I feel especially welcoming of his "demise" since it means all the men and women who lost their lives not only on September 11th, but also since that day in the wars, did not die in vain. It means that our troops fighting there right now are not toiling away without anything to show for it.

I am proud to be an American and even more proud to be part of the American military family!