I’ve rarely if ever put on my Pastor hat when writing here at the site but today I’ll make an exception.
Like many of you, I woke up this morning, glanced at the news, and felt shocked as I realized another grotesque and evil tragedy has taken place on American soil.
According to the New York Times, more than 50 have died and 200 have been wounded by a shooter overlooking the Route 91 Harvest Festival.
A Common Reaction
My mind races to analysis; I’m sure you can identify with that reaction:
The hospitals were over capacity; does my family have enough medical training and appropriate supplies?
What good would all the handgun training in the world do in this scenario?
On and on it goes…
These are important questions that I’ll leave to experts to answer. I’ll remain alongside each of you listening, learning, and preparing.
A Helpful Principle
However, there is a Christian principle that I think can prove helpful in times like these for Christians in particular but for non-Christians as well.
The idea is found in Romans chapter 12, it says:
Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.
Perhaps it isn’t best for us to rush to analysis.
Maybe some of you have lived long enough and felt enough pain to have learned how you can disengage your emotions.
I know you turn them off to get a job done in the heat of the moment.
However, emotions are not our enemy they serve an important purpose. If we never allow ourselves to process them we rob ourselves of an important component of what it means to be human. In the end, this will affect each of us negatively as well as the communities we live in.
There’s not anything that I can do personally at this moment for people in Las Vegas.
Yes, I want answers.
Yes, I want to analyze and prepare every solution possible that we may be equipped for future tragedy.
A Personal Response
But right now, I’m going to chose to allow myself to feel the emotional weight– 50 plus fellow humans lost their lives because of senseless, grotesque, evil.
I’m going to process that there are 200 people in my country who’ve been injured without cause.
I’m going to be angry and I’m going to grieve over the loss of fellow humans.
When the air clears and whatever facts become apparent I’ll analyze, learn, and prepare.
Until then, I’m going to allow myself to process this by feeling the weight of it (not pushing it away).
I’m going to “weep with those who weep.”
Image courtesy of Fox News.
