Today I read a news article about three men arrested for pursuing Jihad in New York City. Militant tactics were to be used to kill the infidel. Fox News headlines quoted "...if he were to die a martyr, he would go to paradise." My heart ached for that man.

You see, when it comes down to it, people want the same thing: to love and be loved. We all want perfection, beauty, splendor. We are made for it. We ache for it. Somehow in the mix-ups and mess ups, people kill for it! Our selfish pursuits will do whatever we think is necessary for admiration, affection, and hope.

People have an innate sense of justice. We know when something is not the way that it is supposed to be, even if we cannot exactly pinpoint what that means. So we battle for correction, fight against seeming (or actual) injustice, and ultimately, we fight for perfection.

Filanthropists, businessmen, missionaries, teachers, presidents, bank tellers, grocery store clerks, trash collectors, and the unemployed strive for it. Radical extremists fight for it. Men will blow themselves up in planes, cars, or otherwise for the hope of paradise. So even a murderer aches for it, and therefore, is worth compassion and sympathy even if warped, evil ways of getting it are used.

We long for the hope of things to come. Lies have been told about how to attain it, but the truth is we don't attain it. We are freely given it. We have all grasped at the wind for perfection, beauty, and what we are made for. Through Christ, we can take hold of that for which He has taken hold of us---the beauty and hope of something far greater than we can attain ourselves.