Insanity

I have been so swamped lately it's a wonder I can even remember my name. The month of May went by like a whirlwind. Annual Conference was stressful; I am probably alone in this, but I HATE SPRINGFIELD. It's a one-horse town, redneck, too Assembly of God for me, and much ado about nothing. Did I mention I hate that place? Even if they have a Starbucks this year.
Conference was a waste of time for me, really. As a commissioned-not-yet-ordained minister, I couldn't vote on delegates for next year's General Conference, so most of the time was a waste, as I sat there. At least I had sudoku games. My lay person left early Sunday morning, missing the bulk of the major conference voting, where they addressed issues like: what defines a marriage? Should we agree to deny membership to people with sexual/gender orientation issues? And should we send a letter agreeing that the Bishops' letter about the Judicial Council decision? In the debates people were talking about "sinners," and lots of people were quite emotional. I thought it was pretty telling when a teenage stood up to say that if the church started denying membership to sinners nobody would be left. It all makes me think of the Martin Niemuller quote about not standing up when "they" came (Nazis in WWII) for Jews, and Christians, homosexuals, etc, and when they came for him there was nobody left to stand up for him. This stupid misguided disagreement on homosexuality issues is splitting the church needlessly.
I was tempted yesterday (in the sanctuary no less) to call my layperson on his dishonesty; he was bragging about how he was going to give a talk next week about the happenings at conference. I did tell him he left before the real meat of the conference occurred, and he was so surprised at being caught leaving he couldn't make a logical comeback. One of the only times that has happened.
I've been thinking too, about a young girl who was kidnapped last Saturday at Target and found dead yesterday. The entire metro is upset about this, and rightfully so. Even Nancy Grace covered this story on CNN last night, I'm told. But the whole issue puzzles me-- why this kid, could anything (other than her being accompanied by somebody to the store) have prevented this, why did the guy have to kill her, and why this evil even exists. Then I start to think about the guy they have on the store surveillance cameras and now have in custody. He has a wife and four-year-old son. What on earth makes somebody do something like this? How could he have lost his mind so to take another life and ruin those of his family too? It really makes you think about evil, and impulses, and the sanctity of life, which evidently some people disvalue. It's just a mystery.