Osama bin Laden and Jesus

I wrote this yesterday about the Osama news and debated not posting.  Well, actually, I chose not to post.  I don’t want to be preachy about how people should be thinking or put down someone if they don’t think the same way.  But in the end, it’s important that I write.  I wish I would have written down all my confusing thoughts on 9/11.  And if I’m having these thoughts, someone is likely to too and that connection is important.  We need to know we’re not alone.  So here you go, all my reactions and questions

About 10 last night I had taken a shower, fallen in bed ready to get some much-needed sleep and checked Twitter one last time.  I was intrigued when I saw Obama would be making a speech at 10:30.  I debated skipping it after reading some initial guesses on Twitter at the subject. I was honestly uninterested in what had happened in Libya or presidential condolences about the tornadoes. NOT uninterested in the tornadoes or damage, just what he had to say about them.  I then saw the name Osama  in one of the tweets and well, if that was the news, it was going to be too historic to miss.  The speech time (and my bed time) came and went several times and by the time the President came on, it was simply confirming all the details Twitter had already told me.  Osama was dead.
It was in that wait time that folks on Twitter and Facebook began reacting that still has me reeling.  What exactly should be my response?  Christians at large?  People at large?  I wasn’t celebrating but I was glad it had happened.  Not often I hear of a death and say "Good".  Can death be good?  I’m not sure it was the death that was good but the removal of his schemes and impact.  That indeed, is good.  But all I could think about was a tweet I read that something to the effect of you kill a hornet, you stir the nest.  I feel LESS safe than I did.  Suddenly folks would want to retaliate.  Would they try to attack on US ground again?  Would our troops be attacked?  Would other US folks in countries be attacked?  I didn’t feel safer at all that he was dead in the immediate future.  And really is his death a death of the extremism?  No. Someone else will likely rise to power in his place. 
Many claim justice was done.  He got what he deserved.  But didn’t Jesus say you don’t get revenge?  Does that mean they should now avenge his death?  It’s a vicious cycle and it’s easy to claim death was good when you’re on the killing side. 
And what of his soul?  Clearly he did evil.  But it doesn’t make me happy he died without Christ.  It makes me sad that Satan won. That he was able to carry out so much evil through him and yet, in the end, no one won but Satan.  He’s separated from Christ.  Some would argue we still don’t know if he is in fact separated from Christ.  I mean, wasn’t he doing this for God?  Maybe in a convulated way he thought he was doing the right thing.  Does that "count"?  Talk about a hornet’s nest, I know.  All I know is my heart’s a little sad that a life was lost to such evil and likely an eternity. 
Why does God allow someone to be born who would live a life like this and never know him?  I don’t understand at times like these.  Did someone miss a chance to tell him the truth?  Did we not pray enough?
You’d think his death would bring peace but I think it brought the opposite.  I think there’s fear and doubt and confusion.    Maybe I’m wrong.  Maybe I should talk to a mother of 9/11 victim and see what she’s feeling.  Perhaps to some they have peace.

There’s a lot wrong with that.  Just a stream of consciousness with no ending really.  But the best thing about this is Lysa  posted this urgent message yesterday about lunchtime and it was almost uncanny how it spoke directly to what I had written only minutes before.

Indeed, we are not alone.  And we are not just bonded with our fellow man with all our doubts but also to God.  He understands all these fears and knows the confusion.  He is there to comfort us when all we know to do is throw up our hands and say I don’t know.  Jesus.  Jesus.  Jesus. We always can count on him to be never-changing.  Steadfast.  Loving.  Good.  Beyond that, I don’t have answers. 

This too shall pass but He never will.