If you have not seen footage of the shooting in a Florida school board meeting this week you are either out of the United States or under a rock.  (Third week of December 2010) A disgruntled man armed with a gun took over the meeting and asked all the women to leave. The members of the board and the Superintendent were left like sitting ducks on the Dias.  At some point the man came up on the Dias within reach of two of the members of the board with his gun hanging down and pointing to the floor. A very courageous  female member of the board returned while the gunman was unaware and used her purse to try to knock the gun out of his hand and failed.  Her failure could have meant the end of her life as her colleagues sat calmly by as she sat momentarily under the gun before being allowed to leave a second time.  When asked why she would risk her life and what she was thinking, she lied.  I don’t know why, it was my plan “A” I did not have a plan “B” so I was done,” she stated publicly.

I refused to believe her public statements because the facts tell a different story.  She had said earlier, she could not abide the thought of her male counterparts on the board, lined up like sitting ducks without doing anything.  The value of her life was outweighed by the values of their lives.  Of course this did not prompt her colleagues to action when she failed in an attempt to rescue them and was in danger of losing her own life on their behalf.  Their values could abide her being shot, the image of her as a sitting duck was well within their constitution.  Their values were totally different and so we are left with an image of men begging the gunman like babies, but will not move on the behalf of a woman who placed her own life on the line.

Let us be thinking people for a minute, this woman never hoped to overcome the gunman on her own. What she could not say publicly was that she wanted to give the men a fighting chance by providing them a moment of distraction. I am sure she reasoned that if I took action the man would cease the moment and fight for their lives.  She never intended to come back into the room and go toe to toe with this huge man while the men in the room stood idly by.  I am sure she could not imagine them still sitting there after she had made her move.   I am sure that a woman like that would have the grace to cover her disappointment.  I know these things in my gut because it offended me as a man and as a man of God.  It offended me as an American that our nation has become so twisted.  I know these things because I cannot see my Dad Jimmy Hill just sitting there in the situation.  I am offended because while most of the men I know would have grabbed that moment for a fighting chance, unfortunately; I know too many who would not.

Why am I dwelling on this the week before Christmas? One reason of course is that it is in the news but the other is more important.  It visualizes the story of the coming of Christ.  We often confuse grace to mean that we do not have a responsibility for our own salvation and growth.  What God did in Christ was interrupted the course of history to bruise the Devil and give us a fighting chance.  Like this woman he came into our situation, engaged the enemy at great personal peril and left again.  Yet in that moment he gave you and I a fighting chance we did not have before.  Like the men in that room we will be judged by what we do with the fighting chance.  The inaction is greater because unlike that gunman who did not truly have a heart to kill, even at point blank range, our “adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:”
It was Solomon who told us that the foolish learn of danger and pass on, but for the righteous often all it takes is a moment!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Isa 9:6  For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Isa 9:7  Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.

"It's Just A Thought"

EF

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