The Mind of a Lover

A couple of weeks ago, an Alabama man went on a killing spree. The murder count reached 11, including four relatives and himself. It seemed to have begun with specific targets such as his mother and, near the end of his spree, the victims became random and opportunistic. The victims' ages ranged from toddler to elderly. The man even killed four dogs in his rampage. Apparently this man was very unhappy, angry, discouraged, and depressed. Alot of people go through these feelings, experience difficulties and failures in life, feel betrayal and disrespect and never kill people. It is obvious that this young man had some problems with his mind, thought processes, and emotions.

Stories like these have become quite common in the news lately, so it wasn't the story itself that got me thinking. It was a story told about the killer by one of his school teachers. The teacher told of an incident involving the man when he was a child, describing how he had found some money and turned it over to the teacher instead of keeping it. She remembered this because of the honesty she saw in the boy. I'm sure it was disheartening and confusing to learn that this thoughtful boy had grown up to become a thoughtless killer.

How could something like this happen? Obviously, this man's reaction was abnormal, but I couldn't help but wonder why caring people become bitter and loose control. When I threw this question around in my mind, this passage from the bible stuck with me:

Romans 7:14-25 (NIV)
We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to
sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what
I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.
As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know
that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the
desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the
good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if
I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living
in me that does it.
So I find this law at work: When I want to do good,
evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I
see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of
my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.
What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be
to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a
slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

In essence, people want to do good and "be good", but we all suffer from the human condition. We desire to do what is right but our body, with it's temptations, are in conflict with our will. Good parents raise their children by reinforcing their children's good deeds and teaching coping skills to deal with the results of bad decisions made by the child and others. Of course, this does not guarantee success, nor does the lack of such upbringing lead to a murderous rampage. My point is that, as we get older, certain things are likely to happen: innocence is stripped and we become desensitized by evil. Often mistreatment by others can lessen our potential for empathy as we attempt to deal with our feelings of betrayal, whether it be real or imagined. We are broken people living among broken people. God chose to come to Earth in the form of a human. When Jesus walked on Earth, He was fully God and fully human. However, He was given human treatment, resulting in His crucifixion. Even though He was betrayed, beaten and murdered, He prayed for us to be forgiven while He hung dying on a cross. The treatment He received did not change His heart. Jesus showed the world what it really meant to have the mind of a lover.

There are two things I want to point out here. First, God always wins. Those who crucified Jesus believed that they had conquered Him. But God cannot be defeated. Likewise, when we trust in God, we do not need to fear. Despite the way we are treated in life, God is triumphant and works good for those who believe in Him. Secondly, even though Jesus was self-sufficient, He was in constant contact with the Father. We may believe we are self-sufficient, but we are not. We need contact with God. We cannot do things on our own. Evil has footing without the love and grace given us by Christ. It is through Him that we learn to forgive and can indiscriminately feel compassion and empathy, despite our circumstances. He gives hope to the hopeless and direction to the lost. He restores us from our broken feelings. Trying to sustain goodness and hope without God is exhausting and is often contingent on what life throws at us.


The Alabama man could no longer see love. Without any other information on him, I will assume the following: The Alabama killer desired good and, at some point, realized that it is easier to do wrong. There was a battle going on inside of him for a long time. Consciously or not, he allowed anger and bitterness to build. Maybe his feelings gave him a sense of power. Regardless, evil gained ground and lies took over. When his feelings got too strong, he gave up control. Given his extreme instability, he chose to take out his pain on others ~ probably as an ultimate expression of power.


~ Lester