Terror in paradise

© The author

I was recently on holiday in the beautiful Western Isles where life is slow and still follows traditions dating back hundreds of years. Everything seemed so peaceful and quiet. Trouble and violence seemed a million miles away. Even the everyday hassles of the workplace were forgotten for a while. But just after we arrived we heard that an Islamist gunman had opened fire on holidaymakers on a Tunisian beach. 38 people died including people from this area. Although I was far away in Scotland, the world suddenly seemed a more frightening place. Everything which that morning had seemed changeless and timeless now seemed vulnerable and threatened.

We have faced terrorism before, of course, but ISIS seems even more menacing than previous groups because it doesn't just want land or political concessions but to wipe out our way of life and will stop at nothing to achieve it. It is also unsettling because these are not foreigners attacking from the outside but people from our midst.

Perhaps you find yourself wondering where things are heading and what life the next generation will have. Things which we assumed were solid and unchangeable suddenly appear uncertain and fragile. As governments and ideologies come and go, and societies and places change, we can feel all at sea with nothing secure to hold on to.

© ‘oxyman’, geograph.org.uk

The Bible says that Christians have a hope so secure and certain that it is like 'an anchor for the soul' (Hebrews 6:19) - something that gives complete confidence when everything else is in chaos. It will see us safe through the greatest crisis of all, death itself. It will not change as other ideas go out of vogue. It will safeguard our hearts and minds through times of the greatest threat and anxiety. It has been proved certain by generations of people.

What is this hope? It is a person – Jesus Christ, the one the Bible describes as ‘the Rock’. Through him we have hope that there is life beyond the grave, a point and a meaning to life and a way to rectify the wrong done in this life. There is strength for daily living and true, lasting peace. God knows all that happens in his world. He will call everyone to account for what they have done in their lives  and will not allow the terrible things people do to one another to continue forever. God sent Jesus to deal with the consequences of all that evil - from acts of terrorism down to the everyday things that fill us with guilt and regret. He came to obtain forgiveness for all that wrongdoing by dying in our place on a Roman cross. We only have to trust him and ask him to give us that forgiveness.

The Bible says that, without Jesus, we are ''without hope in the world' (Ephesians 2:12) but his death and resurrection gives us “a hope and a future” .(Jeremiah 29:11) If you would like to know more about how you can find this hope, open a copy of the Bible and read about it for yourself, or talk to someone you know who is a Christian.