So here it goes....
Our world is broken. That is no secret. In my opinion, it has been in a downward spiral since 9-11. I have felt heavy since that day. Yes, it comes and goes but mostly it comes. No, I don't think I am depressed or ill. I am just sad for our world. I am sad for our children. I am sad that I hide the newspaper and click off the news when my boys come into the room. My kids have never ever watched the news. Yes, you heard me right. It's not that my children don't know about the tragedies of this world, it is that my husband and I choose when and how to tell them. They know about death. They know about hate. They know about 9-11. They know about Hitler. They know about bad guys, terrorism, kids getting taken off the street.
However, this tragedy is going to be a hard one to explain. Simply because there are no answers. There are no excuses. I can't tell the kids, the shooter was a broken man that did not know these children. That he walked into a random school with random intentions and started shooting. From my perspective (what I have read) he was considered "friend" not "foe" in the school. I would have done the same thing. I would have allowed the son of a teacher into the school. Why wouldn't I? You can't screen for mental illness. You can screen a driver's license. You can ask all the questions about their reasoning for being at the school. There probably would have been no amount of questioning that would have changed the outcome of yesterday.
Our world is broken. Somewhere along the way, this man was sad. Somewhere along the way this man was depressed, ill, bullied, abused, treated unfairly, wronged, judged....something. Somewhere along the way, there were signs that we probably ignored. I say "we" because I mean "we". Society. Not his mother. All of us.
Here is where I get preachy. I am not blaming the mother, the brother, the Principal, the friends. I am not blaming anyone. I am simply asking one question:
Out of all of the people that this man interacted with on a daily basis, did not one person bother to notice a warning sign from him?
Someone in his 21 years of life must have noticed, must have sensed, must have suspected that he was a broken mentally ill man. I'm fairly certain that you don't just wake up one day and decide that you are going to go to an elementary school and start shooting.
Here is my plea to our broken world. Take notice. Talk to people. Give a smile. Say hello. Call an old friend. Make a new friend. Talk to your kids' friends when they come over on a play date. Help a disabled person at the grocery store. Bake cookies for someone else. There are a million ways that you can spread kindness in this word. Love and kindness require no money. No purchase necessary. No gift receipt.
In case you are wondering, I do believe that a lot of the hate and anger in this world can be prevented by rainbows and unicorns. Maybe even a little bit of glitter and a few butterflies. Throw some cute puppies in there are you have the making for some serious joy filled-people.
I am not trying to make light of this situation. Can you even call it a situation? It was a hate filled murderous act of evil. That's what it should be called.
Those children were innocent. Those children did nothing to wrong this man. And therein lies the evil. This man committed an evil act on the innocent. He lashed out his anger in a cowardly way. Puppies and unicorns will not fix a man like that.
We need to pray against the evil. We need to pray our way out of this broken world we have created. WE HAVE CREATED. We were all born innocent. Remember, God gave his only begotten son... remember that line...from the BIBLE???
We are approaching one of the single most important dates in all of Christianity. The birth of Jesus gave hope to the world. Can you imagine how broken the world was back then...before the birth of our Lord Jesus? Look at what a gift we have. We have been given a gift of forgiveness. A gift of hope. A gift of grace. Those sweet little innocent children and the adults that cared for them at the school are with Him now. Imagine their happiness. Imagine the sheer joy of never feeling the pain of this world again. Pray for them. Pray to them. Pray that their angelic minds watch over us and make this world a better place.
We need some light in this world. We need some hope in this world. Hope is created by us. Love is created by us. Maybe this will spark your "feel good vibe" today to pray.
Most importantly, pray. We all relish and gear up for Black Friday, Cyber Monday...now we have Camo Thursday and Macy's I Believe Day. Really?
How about a "Pray Like You Mean It Day"? How about a "Get Down On Your Knees And Pray Day"? Take 30 seconds out of your life today to pray. Take five minutes out of your life today to pray. Pray as you make cookies for someone. Pray as you dial up an old friend. Pray as you are driving and someone cuts you off. Pray for them. It will take just as much energy to let them cut in front of you as it will to step on the gas pedal and box them out.
Pray for the families that are mourning their lost children. Pray for the families that are mourning the loss their mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers and friends. Pray for all of the children that saw this horrible act carried out in front of their eyes.
Pray that our broken world heals. Pray that the hatred ends. I declare today Prayer Saturday. If Macy's can do it, why can't I?
This is the reason why I have a love/hate for guns.. Being my husband is in the military, it is his job to carry weapons at certain times. Plus, my husband was a former police officer so yes, we had a few guns in the house. All of the weapons had gun locks!!
ReplyDeleteThen when the kids came along the guns we had in the house went to a friends house and into a gun safe.
My heart breaks for those families!! I could not imagine sending your child off to a "normal" school day and then never seeing them again.