What do you do with the feelings inside you in moments of overwhelming tragedy like Tuesday’s murderous shooting at Robb Elementary School?
O Lord in your broken-heartedness, hear our cries for the families crushed with sorrow by the loss of their children and loved ones.
You wake up in the morning… just a regular day. You get your child moving, get some breakfast in them. You double-check ensuring their homework made it into their backpack. You pack some healthy snacks, and today you throw in a little treat – the last of their Easter chocolate. You walk them school, giving them a hug, a kiss, blessing them into their day, while you go about yours. And that’s it! That was the last hug. The last kiss. The last time you see life in their eyes.
This is the terrifying reality for nineteen families… families just like yours and just like mine… 19 children, two teachers, and the shooter’s lives prematurely, avoidably, and tragically ended.
“My soul is in deep anguish. How long, Lord, how long?” Psalm 6:3
Bishop Shelly prays, “We pray for the grieving families and community devastated by the murders in Uvalde, Texas yesterday. We pray for all students going to school. We pray for all teachers and school staff. We pray for all parents. We pray for all mental health care workers. We pray for changed hearts of our community members and elected leaders. In the depths of pain and anger, we come before you, O God. Renew and strengthen our commitment and courage to face the painful truth of gun violence in our country — to prevent gun violence; attend to individuals, families and communities traumatized by it; advocate for common-sense gun safety laws. Make us instruments of your peace.”
“Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord; Lord, hear my voice!” Psalm 130:1
The terror, cruelty, and evil enacted in the recent shootings in Buffalo NY, Irvine CA, Uvalde TX, should be unimageable… but they are all too familiar! These three mass shootings within just eleven days have broken our hearts, angered us, and had us asking painfully unsettling questions.
The sad reality is that we are only five months into the year and there have already been more than 210 mass shootings in the USA, with more than 17,000 people having already died by gun violence. (https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/). And lest we forget, I am writing this on May 25th, which is the second anniversary of the murder of George Floyd by on duty Police officers, and Putin’s senseless and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine still rages on… so much suffering.
“Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Matthew 6:10
As a friend reminded me last weekend, “You the home of God.” Spirit lives in you, empowering you to love and to resist hatred. We can pray. We must pray. Ignore the cynics, and pray with all your heart. Let your cries reach to the heavens. Let your holy anger and despair be your prayer. And listen for the Divine answering in return. Look for God’s tears revealed. Open up toward God’s just and righteous anger in response to evil… especially the ongoing evil that is cowardly political “leadership” too afraid of party line or losing NRA backing to protect our most vulnerable. And please, please, please, give yourself over to opportunities to join in the Spirit’s work of binding up and healing. Love with all you’ve got, and never, ever surrender to the darkness.
You can’t change everything but you can notice, you can feel, and you can join… and when you join, you become love. And where there is love change becomes a little more plausible.
“By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:35
Always remember – especially in moments like this – you are loved, you belong, and you are not alone.
Youth
by Daughter
Shadows settle on the place, that you left. Our minds are troubled by the emptiness. Destroy the middle, it's a waste of time. From the perfect start to the finish line. And if you're still breathing, you're the lucky ones. 'Cause most of us are heaving through corrupted lungs. Setting fire to our insides for fun Collecting names of the lovers that went wrong The lovers that went wrong. We are the reckless, We are the wild youth Chasing visions of our futures One day we'll reveal the truth That one will die before he gets there. And if you're still bleeding, you're the lucky ones. 'Cause most of our feelings, they are dead and they are gone. We're setting fire to our insides for fun. Collecting pictures from a flood that wrecked our home, It was a flood that wrecked this home. And you caused it, And you caused it, And you caused it Well I've lost it all, I'm just a silhouette, I'm a lifeless face that you'll soon forget, My eyes are damp from the words you left, Ringing in my head, when you broke my chest. Ringing in my head, when you broke my chest. And if you're in love, then you are the lucky one, 'Cause most of us are bitter over someone. Setting fire to our insides for fun, To distract our hearts from ever missing them. But I'm forever missing him. And you caused it, And you caused it, And you caused it
Peace, dwight
