Dear Church Family,
I’m sure, like me, you are reeling from the senseless deaths of 19 eight and nine year olds and 2 teachers in the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. Typing this just now, my computer doesn’t recognize the spelling of Uvalde and wants me to correct it. From here out, we will never forget. Let’s put 19 in perspective so we don’t become desensitized: it’s nearly enough to fill four basketball teams, the number of seats in a school bus, and an army platoon. Like you, I’ve pulsed with anger (how can this happen!?), crumpled with confusion (why can this happen!?), and recoiled with sickness over the evil in that irrevocable act and in the world at large. We were still struggling with our sin riddled world following the recent white supremacist murders in a grocery store in Buffalo, New York and a church in California. It is human to experience these emotions. As Christians we are called to fight through that to a higher order of grace in the face of hate, blessing in the face of curse, and loving action forward when evil stops us in our tracks.
Today as I thought about what can I do, I realized that I can’t change the whole world today, but I can do what I can in my little corner, right where I am. I cannot hug 38 parents, countless grandparents and other family. I cannot soothe the trauma of the surviving children, I cannot bring the killer to justice. So, today I will multiply kindness to those whom God puts in my path, hug the ones I love and tell them I love them. We fight back waves of revulsion and the urge to perpetuate hate and violence against those we view as the enemy. As Jesus taught us, love is always the only proper response.
In the words of Saint Francis of Assisi, let us all pray:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred; let me sow love;
where their is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
Devine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is n pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
The Runnin' Rev 