Osama Bin Laden and Evil

First I want to take a minute to think about and celebrate the fact that Osama Bin Laden, a person more evil than most of us can even fathom, is dead. I think it is perfectly acceptable to rejoice in the fact that he can never hurt another human being! For those who were directly affected by OBL (all of us in some way) I think the picture below says it all.

What is your motivation for celebration? Is it revenge? Is it justice? Is it closure? For me it is closure and the idea that he personally cannot continue to hurt or threaten others...

Now I want to take a step back and take an introspective look at things. Sure for a moment we can, and should, rejoice but does this have a lasting effect on the world? One instance of evil was forcefully removed but evil is a fact of life and will always exist on this planet... we all need to take a look internally and realize that as sinners we are evil in our own ways. Whether it be stealing, cheating or lying we have all sinned and affected someone else in a harmful or destructive way. Are you as an individual evil? I know I am.... Below is one definition that might help if you struggle to answer that question:

Evil is defined as something that is immoral, causes pain or harm, is offensive, or threatening.

I know I have caused others pain or harm and been offensive on many occasions... I think we all need to take a look at ourselves and minimize the evil within ourselves first. While today it feels like a major victory we can each make a far larger impact by focusing on our own actions than by removing an individual from the world.

Today rejoyce and celebrate, tomorrow join me in focusing inward and begin to really make lasting improvements in this world by focusing on ourselves. There will always be one more Osama Bin Laden out there and while we can hope that removing them will bring lasting change, the kind of change we desire can only be found by fixing ourselves.

These thoughts were inspired by our sermon at Appleton Alliance Church this last Sunday (May 1st, 2011) and you can listen to that here if you are interested: http://www.appletonalliance.org/podcast. As of when I wrote this the sermon was not available but will be shortly.