In the Face of Tragedy…

I am sure by now you all have seen what has transpired this week. How one guy, starved for attention or some other angst, felt the need to take it out not only on himself, but 32 others. We can say it was a factor of faulty raising, or his parents were at fault, or a million other reasons why such an act can occur. I can empathize with the guy, and I can sympathize with the victims and families.

However, remember that this isn’t the only heinous act that has occured. Every day/week/month/year, heinous acts of violence occur all around us. Why should we think any different of the latest one, or the next, or the next? All of these acts occured out of one’s incessant need to show us a difference, albeit with unacceptable selfish methods. In the end, people will not look at him as the change that we need or desire, but someone disturbed…a misnomer in society. In the end, who is at fault for producing this?

We go through life with our mocha lattes, flavored waters, and conveniences of a consumer society, but are in utter shock and awe when acts like this occur. Sometimes we even do not feel “alive” except in the shadow of a disaster. The one thing I want you to walk away with from reading this, is that life is not a guarantee, it is a blessing. I myself definitely take it for granted often, and say this to myself just as much as I say it to you.

Love one another. Honor one another. Honor God. Live with this purpose, and you will find peace.

“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.“

~ 1 Corinthians 13