This World

Yesterday there was a shooting at an elementary school in Connecticut. 20 children died and 6 adults. It was awful to read about. It seems that every week there is another shooting any more.

I think about how much these families must be hurting right now who lost their babies. It's less than 2 weeks before Christmas and these kids were all under 10 with some as young as 5. I think about how much those who survived but had to witness it must be hurting. Those terrible memories that they will have to keep forever.

And I think about how much these people who are willing to take other peoples lives and their own, must be hurting inside. To be in a place so low that you are willing to do something so terrible. What could they have been through to take them to a place like that?

This world seems like such a terrible place. And a lot of it is. I sometimes wish my children didn't have to live in a place like this. That I could shelter them from all of the evil in this world. I'm terrified of sending Emma to school now in less than a year. What if I send her to school one day and she never comes home? No one seemed to have to worry about things like this a few decades ago. And it's just going to get worse the scriptures tell us. I'm afraid.

Yet through it all there are stories like the one of a young man who was willing to wrestle another kid with cerebral palsy. Who not only wrestled him but pulled him on top of him to help him win. He purposefully pinned himself to the ground to give the other young man a victory. When he ended up giving them both a victory.

And a story of football players adopting a girl with downs syndrome into their group so should wouldn't be bullied any more. And all of the other football players joining in to walk her to class and keep her from harm.

Or the girl who was behind an opponent in a school race when her opponent collapsed in front of her. Instead of taking the chance to gain a lead and running right passed her, she stopped picked her up and carried her across the finish line. To top it off, she made sure that the other girl crossed the finish line ahead of her.

These acts of selflessness give me hope. They make me remember that in this world full of evil, it is also full of amazing goodness. There are people out there who rise above it all and make the world a better place a little at a time. That we can also take the time and energy to do something selfless, to become selfless.

I am reminded of quotes like "fear is the opposite of faith". How true this statement is. There is no reason to be afraid when we realize whose hands we are in. When we fully and completely hand the steering wheel over to the Lord. For some reason it is in our nature to try to keep at least one hand on there while he is trying to "drive". It makes it pretty hard to drive in a straight line when there are 2 people trying to drive especially when one of those people is a novice driver who has no idea what they are doing. When we give full control to the Lord he can take us in a straight line and safely over all of the bumps in the road. And then we have nothing to be afraid of. When we know that the Lord loves us and will guide our lives in whatever way is truly best for us then we know that we are going to be safe and happy.