Empty Hearts; Loaded Guns      
    
   You probably heard the good news on national TV yesterday. After 51 days of furious searching, a 24-year-old man was arrested in the senseless killing of four, random people in a Tampa neighborhood. Four different nights; four victims.

   Police say they have "extremely strong circumstantial evidence." 

   His motivation wasn't terrorism, racism, jealousy, family problems or gang violence. How to explain this? He is a local man with a good reputation from school days. 

   We sometimes blame evil. One might justify that - true or not - when people of God are slaughtered. 

   But when someone without faith murders strangers - some of whom also are without religious connections - maybe Satan gets too much credit. Maybe the answer sometimes is - nothing. 

   We have a book, The Fear of the Lord, in which John Bevere describes great revivals and even miracles where people displayed a healthy fear of God. In my formative years, it was normal to attend church, even if we weren't all that saintly during the week.

   Who hadn't read or heard of "God fearing people?" Even a nonbeliever might be inclined to obey civil norms in a culture that acknowledged God, and when presidents frequently referred to God, and secular movies and music didn't strive to offend God.  

Tomorrow: Is it evil, or nothing?                

       Jimmy