Thoughts, prayers and actions

By Tyler Tankersley

It is an all too frequent occurrence: The news is filled with details regarding yet another mass shooting in our country. I am so tired of these stories. My heart is broken by the idea that my three little children will grow up with the phrase "mass shooting" being part of their cultural lexicon.

Most of us have no idea what to do in the face of such wanton tragedy and senseless violence. After the recent shooting at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, many people on social media were offering their "thoughts and prayers" to the victims.

In responding to these expressions of thoughts and prayers, others were giving in to cynicism and deriding calls for prayer in the wake of this most recent mass shooting. One media personality said that "thoughts and prayers" do nothing. That's utterly ridiculous.

If you are a person of faith, prayer is not something to be taken lightly, and we believe it has a powerful force for real change in our world. We believe God hears prayers and responds with comfort and order. By lambasting religious people's extension of thoughts and prayers to the victims, these cynical people were doing nothing but making snide comments that only served to further divide us all.

However, even as a person of faith, I do understand their frustration. While we should never dismiss the power of prayer, we should also never simply allow it to stop at thoughts and prayers. Prayer is not meant to be a finish line for people of faith; it's meant to serve as a starting place.

James 2:16 says, "Faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead." Faith is a vital foundation we need in our lives. Faith serves to help form the way we view God working in our world. But faith is meant to be backed up by works. Faith is meant to be lived out in concrete decisions, Gospel-centric policies, and neighborliness. Faith without works is akin to spending a lot of money to purchase your dream car and then allowing it to rust away in your garage.

We do need to express thoughts and prayers for victims of mass shootings. But that is meant to be our starting place, not our only action. I have no good answers. I tend to think that a solution to curbing the violence in our country will require both sides of the political aisle to compromise. We are all going to have to be willing to see past the black-and-white rhetoric of the increasingly divisive punditry of all stripes. We are all going to have to play a part in crafting a society centered on God's hope, peace, joy and love.

We should always be willing to extend our thoughts and prayers to the victims of tragedies in our midst. That should be our first response and our starting place. But, friends, we cannot allow it to end there. Faith without works is dead.