The “T” word is now part of our regular vocabulary.  As with many other contemporary words, “terror” once conveyed a definite meaning, but now the word is stripped of its emotional power through common usage by unimaginative and unmotivated news writers.  This time of year many actually seek to be terrified for entertainment purposes.

Terror was once the response of the purveyors of evil as they beheld the face of justice.  In our day we have replaced justice with either senseless retribution or with detached wrangling over legal minutia and not the facts in a case.  We have empowered the wicked to ply their trades without the visceral fear of being held to account by the righteous and so our cultural decline resembles the slow spiral descent of the carrion bird.

Perhaps this is why joy is difficult to find in these days.  Everywhere we turn our eyes we see the absence of justice and the presence, at one level or another, of terror.  For some, terror is the daily reality only for people far away, for others even a look out the windows of their home engenders terror.

I believe justice is worth yearning for so joy may once again reign in the hearts of the wise and terror in the hearts of those to whom it is due.

“Justice is a joy to the godly, but it terrifies evildoers.” (Proverbs 21:15, NLT)