Many people have been asking “why?” in regards to the tragic events that took the lives of innocent young children and some of their teachers in Connecticut.
Why?
I think one reason is that hurt people hurt people.
When I used to hear news like this I was all the more motivated to find the quickest way to the mountains and my dream hippy commune where we eat from the garden every day and enjoy group hugs around the campfire each night. I still do think that could be swell…
But that is not my response this time….
I am a parent. My daughter is the same age…6… of most of those 20 children brutally murdered. I am deeply saddened for these parents and their tremendous loss.
But my response is not to cower in fear and grab my children and huddle them up in my dream hippie commune away from all danger, anger, and fear.
My response is that I am more motivated to love the living evil right out of this earth.
I cannot fathom sitting around my blissful campfire growing more obese as a glutton of the goodness, the hope, the glory, freedom and LOVE I feed off of as a child of the King. No I cannot keep all that to myself. Rather I must share that with the hungry, starving world.
I serve as a volunteer in one of the roughest areas of Atlanta as we seek to end sex trafficking in one specific neighborhood. On that outreach recently some of my co-volunteers encountered a man they were able to share God’s love with. For quite some time they spoke destiny and life to him, at one point he reached in and pulled out a gun. Then he emptied the bullets and placed them in the hand of my friend and said, “Here…I was planning to go and shoot everyone in my work tonight because I was just so angry. But now…I can’t do that anymore.” Lives that would have been lost in a senseless tragedy were saved just by some strangers showing love and life to an angry, confused young man. 5 bullets were given to my friend that night. 5 bullets that would have been used to end lives are now a testimony of the power of Love.
Oh how my heart breaks that there was not someone to stop this Sandy Hook shooter in the same way. I know God’s heart breaks over that too. But can you imagine how many tragedies could be prevented just by simply going into the ugly places and bringing beauty? Going into the darkness and bringing light? Going into the hate and bringing love? Reaching out to the loners and loving them? Love is the answer. I am the answer. You are the answer. What if we lived like it?
People often say “where is God?” in times like this. Well, I say He is inside of me, He is inside of you and so is His Love.
So where are we?
What are we going to do about it?
God grieves with these families. He did not take these beautiful lives. But I know He welcomed them with open arms.
I know the issue is complicated. I know we need to care for the mentally ill and we need to have more security etc…But I think maybe I am naive enough to believe that the answer could be as simple as LOVE.
Love that suffocates murder and breathes life. Love that drowns despair and births hope. Love that comforts those who mourn. Love that binds the broken-hearted. Broken people break others. Hurt people hurt others. But people who are consumed by Love…well they love others. Not just around the campfire at their safe community. But they love the dirty, the broken, the hurting, the weird, and the angry. Those consumed by Love…love. Love is the agenda of Heaven to heal the broken-hearted and to set captives free, to bring joy to those who mourn.
Love is the answer now more than ever.
)But that perhaps we allow God to search the motives of our heart. Allow His wisdom to guide us. We may be surprised at what his wisdom tells us to do. Often it will look quite different than our own.
