Saturday and Sunday confronted us with two more distressing headlines about devastating acts of evil in our state. On Saturday afternoon, a man shot and killed 8 people, including 3 children, outside of an outlet mall in Allen. On Sunday morning, a man drove over and killed 8 people waiting at a bus stop in Brownsville, apparently intentionally. These stories follow closely on the heels of the execution of 5 people, including a child, at their homes just north of Houston a little over a week earlier.

When tragedies like these take place, talk about them tends to dominate the media’s attention, and understandably so. This speaks to our innate desire to want to know why. We tune in and click on updates as they are released because we want an explanation. We are rational and moral creatures, and that leads us to want to be able to make sense of evil deeds like these – to be given some indication of motive.

But the truth is, no amount of information discovered can fully explain a human heart. It is too complex. As we read in Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” Evil is inherently irrational – it doesn’t make sense. We don’t like to accept this, because it means we can’t fix what is broken with our society.

However, while we can’t make this world a safe place, God can, and so we should pray for Him to intervene – to restrain the evil that seems to be taking over our society. And as we do so, let us not neglect to pray for the families and communities who have been most impacted by these terrible acts. Pray for supernatural healing, and pray for the Lord’s compassion to be poured out upon them through Christ’s people.