#letsloveoneanother

I was in El Paso this morning…

My wife has family there and we went for a very short visit. We weren’t even there for 48 hours. Our flight left at 4:15, so this morning my wife and I decided to go to the outlet mall, while our cousin stayed at the house, planning on going to the Ceilo Vista Mall to return something before his flight back to Houston. As we walked into the Steve Madden store, our phones alerted us of an active shooter and while we were talking to one of the clerks in the store, a moment of panic set over us as we realized that our cousin was planning on going to the very area that the shooting was taking place. After three calls, we finally got hold of Rachel’s uncle and learned that they hadn’t left the house and they were safe.

This tragedy has weighed heavily on me all day. I don’t know if it’s the proximity that I was to it (although, there have been a few in Denver that I’ve been close to as well), the amount of death involved, the seemingly endless tragedies that we hear about, or just the extra time that I’ve had to reflect today due to my travel plans, but I can’t get it off of my mind. I’ve watched the news, read articles, and sat silently with my thoughts. My heart is broken.

My heart is broken for those that experienced this firsthand.

My heard is broken for the families of those who were lost today.

My heart is broken for this world and the pain that never seems to end.

I consider myself a student of History, it has always intrigued me and interested me. I love learning about the past and how it has influenced the present. One thing that rings true throughout history and is still just as true today is that humans have a propensity to murder and kill other humans. One of the first events recorded in the Bible was a brother murdering a brother. As humanity advanced into newer generations, we keep hoping that we can move forward and leave the barbaric ways of the past behind us. Yet time and time again murder, death, and suffering come back like a recurring nightmare that will haunt us for the rest of our lives. We can’t escape it.

We can spend our life trying to figure out why and never find satisfaction in the answers we find. Many pages have been written over the course of history trying to discover the reason humanity is the way humanity is. We can exhaust our breath trying to explain away tragedy or to find someone or something to blame. Ultimately we will probably find ourselves right back here – hurt, confused, and broken.

I ask “why” and try to dissect things more than most people I know. But perhaps today calls for a different approach… If we accept the idea that death and suffering is something that we will never be able to avoid, how can we respond to a tragedy like today? Here are a few of my thoughts.

First, let’s take a moment to realize that the person who committed this horrific act is a human, just like you and me. Let’s grieve over the fact that his mind and his convictions concluded that taking the lives of others was the right thing to do. Let’s pray for him, like Jesus prayed for those who murdered him unjustly, we can still have love in our heart for him, not condoning any part of his actions, but knowing that we’ve all been broken at some point and we can hope that he will repent of the evil things he has committed.

Second, hug your loved ones. Be thankful that you have another day to be around the ones you care about most in your life. You don’t know when someone will be taken from you. Let’s be grateful for the life that we have and the love that we get to share with those around us. Hold them extra tight tonight and tell them how much you love them. Tell them one thing that you appreciate about them and why they mean so much to you.

Finally, think of someone that you know who might need a friend or a listening ear. So many of us go through life lonely or isolated, struggling or insecure. A kind word to someone can make such a deep impact. Let us love those around us, let us love them no matter their social status, religion, race,  political affiliation, or stage of life.