God > Evil

Hey, friends. How about taking a moment or two tonight to pray for everyone impacted by acts of terror – can we all do that? Pray for peace, healing and strength. Pray for more love and less hate in this world.

Evil wants to overcome good, but that will never happen. Evil wants us to live in fear and fear death while we’re alive, but our God is stronger and death was defeated when Jesus went to the Cross!

Evil can’t win. It may look like that sometimes, but it will never, ever happen. No amount of evil can ever triumph over the eternal good that God promises us, through Jesus.

So, go out and live without from fear tonight, tomorrow and every day God gives you. Spread peace, love and joy everywhere you go.

We all have the ability to make this world a better place. Let’s get to it!

Pray

For every person on this Earth who is being persecuted for what they believe right now.

For every person persecuting others for what they believe.

For peace.

For healing.

For miracles to happen and chains of evil to be broken.

Pray.

May Good Always Triumph Over Evil: Remembering 9/11

Reflecting on the events of 9/11/01 this morning.

For as much evil as there was that day, there was equally as much, if not more, good in action. Countless stories of people putting themselves second and others first. So many who put their lives on the line for others they didn’t even know.

So today I salute every person who had any role in helping others that day – and in the days, months, and years that have followed.

May God bless us all and may good always triumph over evil.

Let Good Triumph Over Evil (Remembering September 11, 2001)

It’s hard to believe 12 years have passed since the attacks on our country the morning of September 11, 2001.

Like most everyone else, I remember where I was that morning. I was in Springfield, Illinois. It was my day off (I was working an odd schedule as a young television news reporter) and I was sleeping in that day, as was customary for a 24-year-old with nowhere to be and with no obligations on a morning like that.

One of my roommates woke me up and said I needed to come take a look at the TV. That’s when the second plane hit the second tower. That’s when I realized it was no ordinary day.

Within minutes, my pager started buzzing. As you might imagine, it was all hands on deck at the news station. Off to work I went.

I don’t remember exactly what my story angle was that day but I do remember the eerie feeling of walking past the federal building downtown and seeing the heavy police presence there.

I remember briefly wondering if that building was going to be blown up or attacked in some fashion and I vividly recall the sense of fear I had at that moment. The bad guys had briefly won in that regard, but as things returned to ‘normal’ in the weeks, months, and years to follow, time would show that they really hadn’t.

We are a resilient bunch, we Americans, and human beings in general. The scars that attack left are still there and for the people more directly involved in the attacks, I am quite certain not a day goes by that they don’t miss their loved ones or feel a level of pain that I cannot understand.

But I also know that as a whole, we have all continued to live our lives and the 9/11 attacks have not stopped us from being free.

Sadly it’s something we continue to take for granted and I’ll be the first to admit I’m guilty of doing so. But every time I stop to think about it, like today for example, I realize just how thankful I am that we live in a place where we are free to think, act, worship, love, and live as we desire. America isn’t a perfect place but it is a pretty great place.

To everyone out there who lost someone that day 12 years ago or as a result of the events of that day, I’m sending you good thoughts. To everyone else, let’s all be vessels of peace and love today. Let good triumph over evil.

The Alex Teves Challenge

http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/29/us/colorado-shooting-alex-teves/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

From the article:

“If you want to describe Alex in one word, he was just good,” says his father, Tom Teves. “He wasn’t a standout in anything, but he cared about people.”

It is the goodness of humanity that Teves wants the world to know and remember: the virtues of his son — and the 11 others killed at a midnight premiere of the latest Batman movie, “The Dark Knight Rises,” in a cinema in Aurora, Colorado.

That desire has taken shape as a crusade. In the midst of mourning his first born, Tom Teves has wrested purpose from his grief — the Alex Teves Challenge, he calls it. He demands that the media stop naming and showing images of the gunmen in mass murders.

If you continue reading the article, you will see that the father of Alex Teves wants everyone to remember the heroic acts of those who perished at that movie theater in Colorado, and not the act of cowardice that took so many lives.

His message is geared toward the news media but it carries a broader meaning that can be put into practice by all of us.

Focus on the good, not the bad. Let good triumph over evil.

Bad things will happen and our lives will not be void of hard times, sometimes extremely hard times. The world is not a perfect place.

But, no matter what it might be…even something as horrific as someone walking into a crowded movie theater and shooting innocent men, women, and children…we don’t have to dwell on the evil act, nor do we have to let evil win.

I don’t know if Mr. Teves had this in mind when he came up with his challenge, but I’m going to offer it here anyway:

Romans 12:21
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Let’s keep the good in the forefront, whether it’s in the aftermath of this tragic event, or just the every day doings of our lives.

Let’s live our lives in a way that promotes good, not evil.

Let’s be positives, not negatives.

Let’s accept this challenge and overcome evil with good.

God bless.