I was shocked the other day when NPR informed me that there were four school shootings in one week. I had heard about one here and one there, but in the hubbub of life I had not stopped to count. By the end of the day on Feb. 14th there had been five shootings from the 7th to the 14th. That ties the record for the most shootings in any one year since 1968.
Hearing the news report took me back to when I first heard of the Columbine massacre in 1999. I was attending college in PA and in some ways, though the shooting was another time zone away in CO, it felt like my whole world stopped as we were gripped by the news. Now, I must be a bit numb to school shootings when it takes news of four in one week to jar me.
I don't want to turn this into a commentary on our society and what's happening to it, etc. I just didn't want to let another day go by without acknowledging that these tragedies are happening, in rapid order. I want to express my own grief, that my heart is hurting for those who have lost and hurting for us as a nation that this is the reality we find ourselves living. I encourage those of you out there reading this post to pause for a moment and realize that this is indeed happening in our midst. And let's not just grieve, but instead ask ourselves what we as individuals can do to reach out and touch those around us.
Psalm 27:13 "I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living." Click here for a song that may speak to you if you find yourself dismayed.
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