FROM: An older, unarmed man
TO: Angry guys with guns
Hello! Let me introduce myself: I’m an older guy, living in the upper Midwest. Retired and trying to make sense out of life. Maybe just like you, except that I don’t have any guns. Can we talk, man-to-man?
I have tried to understand why you rely on your weapons so much and why you’re loud-angry. Most of what I hear from you just doesn’t make sense: You think that your guns are going to help you accomplish what you want.
It might seem that it’s necessary for you to take up arms to solve problems—at least for awhile. But I’d like to know what your long-game is. What you think you’ll eventually accomplish. How all this will end for you. Control everyone else? Eliminate people like me? Or scare us into submission?
It feels like you’re trying to force me to shut up, to stop believing what I’ve learned during all these years of following Jesus. To agree with you because I have to. But if you haven’t been able to influence or inspire me, do you think that your heavy armament is going to intimidate me into agreeing with you? I don’t think so.
Something else you need to know: This angry gun-toting is gradually wrecking your life. Constant anger is stressful, addictive. It eats at your brain like acid. The rest of your body is not going to stay healthy for much longer. Your relationships will eventually head south. And then what?
Like Jesus, I think there’s a better way to live than hiding behind weapons: Putting aside fear and anger. Working alongside people like me to save the world. Loving. Forgiving. Taking care of other folks. Quieting down so you can live longer, better. Happily.
Maybe we could talk….
