final days forum

Old-school faith and fasting

My spirit soared when I read in The Denver Post today about how volunteer security guard, Jeanne Assam, said she had just come off a three-day fast when the shootings occurred Sunday at New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colo. She had been fasting and praying to God about whether she should return to her career in law enforcement.

"I was weak," The Post reported Assam saying. "And where I was weak, God made me strong. He filled me and he guided me and he protected me and many other people. And I'm honored that God chose me. I'm very honored."

When she confronted the 24-year-old shooter, Matthew Murray, Assam fired, bravely walking toward him, a witness told The Post in another story. A coroner's report said today her shots did not kill him, that the shooter ended his own life, but I wonder about the spiritual meaning behind that finding as well.

All day, the story has been about a security guard who relied on God and gained the courage to stop an attack in a church while other security personnel held back. The coroner's report could easily overshadow Assam's prayerful bravery, but in my mind, I won't let it.

Fasting is a high spiritual time for the believer and Assam no doubt had enjoyed the blessings of fellowship with the Father, so He had prepared her for what she would face on Sunday.

And that is mind-boggling deep to me.

The audacity of violence

Great prayer is needed after the slayings in Colorado at the Youth with a Mission in Arvada and New Life Church in Colorado Springs. My heart goes out to the families and friends of both the victims and the shooter.

An Associated Press story today quotes an unidentified investigator who says the shooter "hated Christians." Whether the shooter, who reportedly grew up in a godly home, despised believers or not, the tragedy demands our prayers.

But may we not react in horror to this form of violence and ignore its bloody trail elsewhere.  A violent spirit stalks our neighborhoods and gathering places, and its victims are everywhere. Victims are slain by gunfire at an Omaha, Neb. mall, felled by gang hate in our urban centers and ripped from life in domestic violence cases across the country.

To smugly say that kind of violence only happens somewhere else, we increase the power of violence to act with impunity.