Sadness.

This morning on my way to work, I was listening to the news and I felt burdened. Burdened by the fact that there was nothing I could do to stop the tragedies that had been taking place in our city, our state, and all over our country. I prayed for the violence to end, for there to be comfort and understanding. I prayed that kids in my community would stop taking their own lives, and start realizing that if they die to self, and are reborn in Christ... they have a reason to live. Throughout the day I have thought about this off and on as I have read the news periodically at work. I didn't think it could get any worse... then I came back from a company Christmas Luncheon to this headline:

"Horror Unfolds at Conn. Elementary School" (Yahoo! News)

Really? An elementary school? Is this what society has become... walking into a school of Kindergarten-Fourth grade students and shooting, as though it were a game? I'm sick to my stomach, my heart aches, and I'm at a loss for what to do. The last number I saw was 18 children dead. Dead. 27 people total. How do the demonic animals that committed these horrendous acts not realize that children are our future. Those kids they killed, were future CEO's, Pastors, Teachers, Husbands, Wives, Mothers, Fathers, Leaders... Their actions not only destroyed and ended lives in a Connecticut community, but damaged the hope we have in humanity across the country. As I sit here, I move from heartbroken to angry. I just want to know what in the hell these people were thinking. Then I am reminded that they weren't. They allowed their lives to be directed by the enemy, by a lost, broken, horrific, falsity that children in an elementary school deserved to die. Instead of keeping children safe, they stripped away their lives. Lives that were too young.


Pray. Pray for the families of the victims, pray for the community, pray for the school staff and the children that survived, pray for elementary schools across the country, pray for our country... but also, pray for the gunmen and their families. Pray that the families of the men that did this can find peace and comfort in Christ, and realization that had their family member found himself basking in the Holy Spirit, this wouldn't have happened. I have faith that the community of Newtown, Connecticut will find healing in the years to come. I have faith in that because of what it says in Psalm 34:18 "The Lord is close to the brokenhearted, he rescues those whose spirits are crushed". 


I find my hope in that verse alone. Prayers to all involved, Lord provide comfort and healing in the midst of everything that has happened.


Grace and Peace