Stayed close to Jesus
Continued to attend Church
Put his trust and hope in God alone
Lived in Christian hope and expectation of good
Listened and incorporated the Christian values he was taught by his family and at his Church
Sought help when evil thoughts started to obsess him
Prayed and sought help from the pastor of his family's Church
Reached out to family or counselors and asked for help...
No one will ever know why James Holmes didn't seek help as he drifted deeper and deeper into a psychotic world filled with evil obsessions. Awhile ago I read in a front page article in the New York Times that increasingly young people entering college are in need of psychological counseling and therapy. Counselors are overworked trying to keep up with the demand for their time. Our fast-paced, competitive, economically volatile, anxiety-ridden, overly materialistic society, is causing stress and anxiety for many. Some cope better than others.
I just keep thinking that this horrific story didn't have to happen. James Holmes was brought up as a Christian. He heard the gospel preached, he listened in Church to Christ's message. He heard in his Church (Penasquitos Lutheran Church), the words of Scripture, as spoken by Jesus who said, "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life." If only he had truly listened and incorporated that message into his being and way of life. If only he had stayed on the Christian path and entered into a deep relationship with Jesus. But he rejected the Christian message of love, hope and compassion. He dismissed the Ten Commandments that could have saved him from self-destruction. He turned away from the very thing that could have helped him-the support of a Church community, the peace and righteousness of knowing Christ and doing His will. He turned from God, from the light and was tempted by evil and the darkness. He strayed into a dangerous and evil world and he destroyed innocent lives as well as his own. His poor parents, how sad for them. He has destroyed their lives as well.
Innocent people died senselessly and tragically. People suffer and lives will never be the same. A tragedy that never should have happened, if only James Holmes had stayed the course, read the Bible, lived the truths within it and stayed close to Christ.
For the people who lived through that living nightmare and for those who died, in the theater in Aurora, they experienced an apocalypse, of sorts. The doomsday scenario happened on a small scale. Something very evil and destructive did surface in 2012, it is strange indeed.
NJA
**Update-According to recent developments, James Holmes was being treated by a psychiatrist at the University where he studied. Apparently he was a patient of Dr. Lynne Fenton.
Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil. (1 Thess. 5: 21-22)
