Mixed Emotions...

It has been an emotional day. For me. For the vast majority of our country. An objective so long sought has been accomplished. What concerns me most is the reaction I have seen to it. It worries me - what it says about our country. About the condition of our hearts. About the clarity of our minds. Whether we realize what we are saying at all...

Here is a brief summation of the ponderings of my heart today.

*Am I deeply grateful to our military for completing this mission objective? Absolutely.
*Do I fully agree that it had to be accomplished? Yes again.
*Do I think it solves everything? No.
*Do I think there will be political advantage taken? Of course. By both sides.
*Does it terrify me how many "hope he had full magazines emptied into him" or "wish I could've seen his eyes" kind of hateful, pleasure-in-death statements worthy of an Osama Bin Laden type person I have seen? YES!!
*Am I sickened that it seems that both people who can't stand Bush and people who can't stand Obama are jumping on the blame bandwagons for why it didn't happen sooner or how the President's words were self-glorifying or not perfectly crafted? Yep. This should be GOOD news for all of us. And we should all be able to admit that no one man of any political stripe was able to accomplish this on his own.

I dunno. The whole thing makes me sad. It's like what should be a common goal reached has become yet another point over which to bicker. And as sick as the man was, as worthy of the end to which he was brought, as necessary for moving forward as his death was both security-wise and on the world political stage, I cannot find it in myself to be HAPPY that it came to this or to party over the probability that he is tormented in hell. I am proud of the tenacity and resolve of our country's intelligence and military communities to accomplish the task that was laid at their door. I am thankful that a President who entered office so arrogant as to dismiss the value of Gitmo chose to humble himself, albeit quietly, and continue to allow his military commanders to do their jobs and accomplish the mission with which they had been tasked. I appreciate the sacrifices made by so many and the message that this surgical mission sends to the world. I am sympathetic with the families who have seen justice served to the murderer of their loved ones. But I can't be jubilant over something so somber. Over the end of a life that God created - and loved - because that life chose to live it apart from his Creator and spread sin's devastating consequences over so wide a field.

War sucks. And even the victor pays a high price. It makes me wonder if this is part of what Jesus saw when He wept over clueless Jerusalem...