I’m seeing an increasing trend in the world. It’s a weighty one. And it will only increase—much more so—in days to come. Despair.

Most people have seen the news today: Joseph A. Stack had enough of the IRS, enough of Big Brother, enough of corruption that abounds in our dark world. So he decided to light fire to his own home, and then take his own life in a show of spectacular revenge, hoping to take some of his “enemies” from the IRS with him. I and an increasing number of others are feeling weighed down by the same problems, and they will only get worse. I don’t disagree with Mr. Stack’s frustration with corruption. But what you believe makes all the difference with how you handle it. The tragic response of a finite man who does not trust in an infinite and just God, whose only hope was in a world free of pain and corruption and unrighteous government, will logically come to this conclusion: “violence not only is the answer, it is the only answer.”

Yes, what answer but violence, if we, mere material man, suffer under hardship by unrighteous overlords? Why not waste the short breath of our lives while eliminating the ones causing the suffering? Of course, and in so doing cause more pain and tears and soul-cleaving agony in the process. And we look at the supposed answer and see just one more manifestation of darkness. Are you in pain? Of course, just add some more pain right back, and we can all rest in hell together.

But, if we believe that an infinite, loving God does not only exist but is crafting a story of grace and redemption in a world where man has chosen to go terribly wrong, and that our hope is the perfection of God Himself and His promises to those who believe Him, then—and only then, can we have true hope. Only if you recognize that the Maker of man will one day judge those who inflict the suffering, that He will reward those who patiently endure, and that love and grace and hope are still possible for one who is looking to Him in hope beyond the darkness, only then will we be able to pass through any valley with unshakable joy, and not take a one-way flight in our own souls, if not our bodies.