While I don’t often add my voice to the popular news cycles, I feel the need to once again speak up. If for no other reason than because someday I want my child to know his mother was willing to speak up and he should be unafraid to do the same.
Tragedy. Horror. Shock. Sadness. Anger. Disbelief.
I am not sure what went through your head as the news of Orlando broke over the weekend. Honestly, I rarely check my phone over the weekend and we haven’t actually turned our TV on in a really long time so I didn’t know anything about it until Sunday morning in church when the worship leader mentioned it.
20 dead. Then 50 dead. A shooting in a nightclub.
My heart sank. And for a split moment, fear washed over me. I spend a fair amount of time in nightclubs with individuals some in society would like to hate. But this isn’t about me.
Why is it that when we don’t agree with someone, the often seen reaction is hate? or judgement? or condemnation? Have we forgotten these are individuals made in the image of God? I realize this crime was not perpetrated by an individual claiming to follow the God of the Bible, however, have we unintentionally created a society where this crime seems acceptable on some level? Have we classified those we don’t agree with into separate categories thus making them appear less?
I cannot imagine being the mom who got the text from her son which would become her last exchange with him. My heart breaks for her. Every morning as I say goodbye to my sweet H, I cannot help the thought creeping in of what if this is my last goodbye. I love him with a fierce love and I rest in the fact that my Jesus loves him more than I ever could. As I think about the families affected, the moms and dads, the brothers and sisters, the friends and partners, I am reminded we must put on love. In the midst of such dark tragedy, we must love. Because love is the only thing that will triumph over darkness. We see it in the cross. And the empty tomb. We have the greatest example ever set before us. Love truly does conquer all. And sometimes love has to be tough and talk about tough things and mistakes made. And sometimes love has be to kind and offer a shoulder or a hand to our neighbor. And always, love is to be without hate. I do not want to live in a world where it is at all acceptable to hate those whom you disagree with and I do not want my children to grow up in a world where hate runs rampant.
I do not know how to change the course, but I believe today it can start with you and I practicing love. With our friends and families, with our neighbors, within our communities, with those whom we disagree, and with society at large. Let us be known by our love. And let us point others to the only Love that can mend a broken society.
Image credit @amazingigrace
