The wonderful and profound meaning of money:

No matter how much money you (think you) have or (think you) don't have,
there are limits on what you can buy.

All self-justifying and self-congratulating rhetoric aside, what you end up buying proves and demonstrates your
-priorities
-values
-identity
-religion and ethics

Cigarettes? Charities? Booze? Causes? Investments? Entertainment? Rent/Mortgage? Support of others? Purchases? Necessities? Luxuries?

When the time comes to prove who you you REALLY are,
how you spent the money you have will remove all doubt
to all observers.

Confusing the Roles: bad for everyone

    One very great confusion is the confusion between the roles of government on the one hand, and the role of followers of Christ on the other.
    It is the role of government to preserve civilization against destruction. To do this, it must restrict the behavior of those who would destroy it. It does so through fear of consequences, which works well enough with most people. But some people, groups or nations are so bent on destruction, that a legalized, government form of violence is used to defend civilization against a violence that is perceived to be more evil. Thus, if someone is going to commit the rape of a child, the father of that child will not be accused of a crime if he beats the crap out of that person to stop the rape.
    Both acts are violent, but the one is just a violent crime, while the other is a necessary violence to defend an innocent potential victim. Multiply this by many, many people and many, many situations and you have the traditional - and biblical (see Romans 13) - argument for government and its "justified violence."
    In the most extreme examples - such as war, terrorism, serial killers and gang violence - the justified violence that is necessary to preserve civilization can be quite extreme. It is a complex, imperfect and troubling system, but it is made necessary because of just how awful people can get. God's plans can't go forward if mankind destroys itself completely - which is what would happened without some form of sanctioned violence.
     That is the role of government.

     Contrast the role of the Church: to forgive, to seek healing (from the inside out), to pursue love, compassion, justice (in the biblical, not the political, sense), to empower (in the Christlike, not the worldly, sense), and all those other things you hear so much about in church.
     Problems arise when church people try to get government to do the role that is only for the Church. What if we were to get government to throw away its proper role, and do what certain Christians want it to do: forgive, set criminals free, recompense everybody for whatever losses or victimhoods they think they've experienced, not fight back (no military), etc.? The government is not doing its job, and wickedness takes over - eventually destroying the culture because it is not protected.
    And significantly and ironically, the Church, when it is spending its energies trying to get government to do the role that is only for the Church, then the Church is not fulfilling its God-given role. That's bad for everyone, especially the anemic Christians it produces.

Another Tragedy Soon to Be Behind Us

Soon the tragedy will drop from the news cycle. After that, will you ever catch yourself thinking again about the meaning of James Holmes? How many times have you already heard, “There must never be another event like this"? Pretty obvious, but one question should not go away: why do conspicuous red flags like those in the Holmes case go unrecognized or ignored?

Everyone wears masks. Every person you come in contact with today will keep uncomfortable aspects about him or herself hidden from you. The fact should not produce paranoia, but neither should it be taken lightly.

Masks are unavoidable; a functioning society depends on citizens who do not act out their darkest impulses. The problem is that, in some ways, we are more dependent on falsehood than we care to admit. A promising student "suddenly" shoots up a movie theater, seemingly happy marriages "suddenly" end in divorce, the friendly neighbor down the street "suddenly" commits suicide, riots "suddenly" break out in peace-loving Seattle.

Why do such events shock us? Because the unspoken agreement of virtually all our social interactions is: at all costs, avoid uncomfortable conversations. “I didn’t want to hurt their feelings... It’s none of my business... I'll lose my job... Don’t rock the boat... Who am I to judge?” Our everyday language is filled with the habitual slogans of willful ignorance.

Thus, those who are truly evil - “The People of the Lie,” in Scott Peck’s insightful phrase - do their deeds under the radar until some shocking event forces the blindfold from our faces.

Charles Manson, O.J. Simpson, David Brame, Nidal Malik Hasan, Jared Lee Loughner: Why do their names still haunt the most thoughtful among us? The same question can be asked about Sept. 11, or dozens of other events that “shocked” us, then quickly became yesterday’s news. We know that it is only a matter of time before the next surprise eruption of violence. If we have the courage to look into our own habits, we know something else: we know that we avoid speaking up or acting against smaller evils when we notice them, when they still can be corrected with relatively conventional resources. Therefore, to one degree or another, we are complicit in the next shocking headline. That is an extremely uncomfortable idea. Who among us has the courage to chew on it for a while?