Hope for the hopeless

For the past couple of months I’ve been working in a forensic unit. Just think of “Silence of the Lambs” and Hannibal Lector and you get the Hollywood version of where I’ve been. For all but the past week I’ve hated it. Now I am getting use to it but still it is so far from Hollywood I wondered where they got their ideas from.

Everyday I have to remember which doors to lock and when it is ok to unlock a door. Gradually the routine becomes ingrained and it becomes almost automatic.

Some of the clients have done some really awful things. But I have to look beyond what they have done to see the real person. Many have suffered horrendous abuse in the past which has distorted their thinking and how they relate to others. For others their illness has lead them to believe that they are not in control of their actions.

Now that I am more acclimatised to the environment I have paused to reflect on the way Jesus sees us. Sin has darkened our soul and leads us to so things that we would not have otherwise done. While I might not be guilty of any acts of violence or broken any major law, am still guilty of disobeying God. From birth I was a sinner separated from God. Despite all this I am loved, redeemed, justified.

Is anyone beyond redemption? The message of the cross is that though sin sears the soul and darkens the mind no one is beyond help.

I see all those that I care for trapped by their illness and their history. There seems no help for them. Yet despite this and despite what they have done or will do they are loved as much as you or me. As the psalmist asks “Where shall I go from your spirit o Lord?” Where indeed – is there anywhere too dark for God.

To the victor goes the spoils

They said that it wasn't a civil war. But the dead pile up, thrown onto the street, while black masked killers shoot their weapons into the air in triumph. The news reports suggest the end is in sight, but in this sad land there is no end to the misery, the grief, and the lust for vengence.

Hamas have gained a great victory, but what have they won? Are they any nearer to peace, to a homeland, to victory over their hated neighbours? Their victory and how it was gained will only feed the insecurity of Israel, and the paranoia of the USA. The leaders of Hamas and their followers are so blinded by the love of violence that they can't see how pathetic their victory is.

And so the land will weep all the more. And with each martyr new reasons will be found to continue the forever war that is Palestine.

I have wept many a tear over that troubled land. And I will weep many more till peace is found. But what price peace? When the body count and misery becomes more than the land can bare and the fighting stops because there is no one left to do the fighting who will stand and say the victory was worth the sacrifice?