Friday 14th 2012…

HSLDAPray

(Photo credit: HSLDA Facebook)

It takes time for me to fully process events.

Hence my silence on what happened last Friday.

I gave up reading National news years ago when everything was too depressing and there was nothing I could do about it except fall into a funk or pray.

Psalm 23 gets a regular workout around here,

“The Lord is my shepherd.”

I rarely see any news flash across my computer screen because I have my email page set on sports and AOL still thinks I’m in England so lots of rugby, cricket and soccer news.  Nothing I’m interested in.

My Star Barista was talking about the shooting on Friday evening when she got home from her coffee shop.  She works in a public place so that’s all her customers were going on about.

My first thought was for the gunman.  What kind of pain must he have been going through to perpetrate such an act?  Did he even know what he was doing?

I have these thoughts because I hope for psychological instability.  I could not imagine someone of sane mind doing anything so heinous.

My next thought was for the children in the classroom who had no idea what was going on in their safe little world turned upside down and destroyed.

Then I considered the adults who knew only too well what was going on and that their lives were never going to be the same again.

Finally I imagined how my children would have been affected by such a terror.  I doubt I would have ever persuaded a couple of them to return to school again.

My faith took me to Psalm 91 the one we all said as a nation after the terrorist attacks of September 11th.

“He will cover you with His feathers and under His wings you will find refuge…He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways;”(4,11)

Yes, God was there in Newtown, He cried along with everyone else.

The weekend passed without much conversation in our house about the senseless act of violence.  Prayers were said at Sunday mass for the families.

Then I started talking to hubs and my children.  They had done more reading online than I had.  Their social media was hopping with comments, opinions, hate talk, judgements and scripture.

I dipped into the pages of my own friends and found words of sorrow, grief, bible verses and silence.

Trusted bloggers talked of how a tragedy stops folk in their tracks as they realise what they could have lost, a child, a sister, a grandson, a wife, a brother.

We are told that nothing can separate us from the love of God…except us.

We ask, “what is happening to our world?”

We’ve forgotten what a family looks like is what’s happening.

My teacher daughter says the children in her daycare spend more time with her than they do with their mothers or fathers.

At home we hand our children over to electronic media to babysit.

What happened to a simple conversation, a game of cards, a holding of hands, a run in the park, a parent at home after school, a peanut butter sandwich and a glass of chocolate milk?

Guns aren’t the problem, they are only as dangerous as the people holding them.

I am not the judge here, God is.

I am a parent.  I know how precious my children are.  I know I want to be available to them whenever they need me, want me or just happen upon me. I do not want them to get advice from a chat room, seek companionship from being ‘friended,’ be surprised by a text, find solace in an email or a playmate in a video game.

I want them to be able to hug me, feel my breath on their faces, snuggle in the warmth of my arms, feel my heart beating against theirs.  I want to be the one to advise, befriend, surprise, comfort and play with them.

From where I stand today I cannot imagine what it would be like to lose my young child to a random act of violence.  I look at my Christmas tree and imagine gifts beneath a tree in Newtown that will never be opened.

I walk the labyrinth and pray for all who rest in the columbarium and meditate on the hurting families attending their children’s funerals this week.

I weep.

I sigh.

I hug.

My creator is brought to bear.

When we love God,

We can love ourselves and “trust in the Lord forever.” (Isaiah 26:4)

We can love our neighbours and “mourn with those who mourn.” (Romans 12:15)

We can love our children who “are a heritage from the Lord.” (Psalm 127:3)

Let us join our hands with the shattered families of Connecticut in this season of Christmas and be of one mind, one heart, one spirit with them.  Amen.

 

 

 

 

 

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Chad

2015-03-05 23:26:02 Reply

As a Christian, I agree with you completely on this. This is one of the main rensoas that I blog, and am involved in discipling others in the church. My biggest platform is that of getting people to think for themselves. I teach a Bible Interpretation class, and in that class I never tell people what they should think, but rather how to discover the answers for themselves. To much of the church blindly follows other (flawed) people, and end up in a place where they are not able to make solid decisions for themselves. I am of the school of thought that people should even challenge what their own pastors say, and study the topics on their own. The same ideas hold true for looking at the world around us, and not just in the church.The bottom line, is that I also wish that more reflective Christians’ (as you call them) would speak up against the lemming Christians.

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