Thursday, October 17, 2013

Reflecting on the recent tragedy in CT

Original Post: 2012

It’s been a while since my last blog. I been dealing with a lot personally, professionally and  just in general. Missed me? LOL. I wanted to take the time to write a blog reflecting on the recent tragedy that happened in CT with 20 kids and 6 adults that were shot and killed.

Some people that have come to me asking how I stay strong in my faith when something as awful like this happens and God allows it. Those children were innocent. I wanted to take the time to reflect on that with the Word and my personal thoughts.

1. I’m am incredibly sad and it breaks my heart over and over again to know that something like this happened. I can’t even begin to imagine what the families and other people that knew these victims are going through right now. Though I’m saddened I am, unfortunately, not shocked. The Bible prophesies about the last days and how everything is just going to start getting crazy (in summary). As I read and reflect on this I look for signs of the end of times and try to prepare myself for all the crazy stuff that will happen. I see this as one of those signs. Now please don’t misunderstand me, I’m not saying the world is going to end tomorrow, next week, next month or next year. Our timing is not God’s timing and “soon” for Him could mean years or decades. God does not live in our timing.

2. Why did God allow this to happen? These kids were innocent. No one but God can answer that question so we should probably stop trying to find ways to answer this question. Our thoughts are not His thoughts and His ways are not our ways. God uses circumstances to discipline us (because we are His children. A good father disciplines) or even teach us a lesson. Let’s be real here this was a HUGE wake up call for the nation. When we are children, fire looks cool, we want to touch it and play with it. Our parents, however, yell NO! We can’t understand why because we don’t have the understanding to know that fire will burn, burning will hurt. I believe in due time God will reveal His purpose in this. Until then…we pray.  We also have the realize that the devil has power to influence.  I believe he played a huge part in this and whatever reason, God allowed it to happen. However, everything that the devil meant for evil, God can turn it around for good. I know extreme grieving caused me to fall to my knees and surrender realizing that I can’t do this on my own. This caused me to give my life to Christ. I pray that this will bring more people to Christ.

3. I’m not going to speak on gun control laws. I’m not political at all, I don’t get into debates and to be quite honest I don’t have an opinion on them because I don’t know a lot about that area. I will research though, I promise. A lot of people ask “where was God when all of this was happening?”. We live in a country where God is no longer allowed in schools. You can’t say “Merry Christmas” it’s now “Happy Holidays”. When someone sneezes it’s no longer “God bless you”, it’s now “Bless you”. No prayer, no teaching about the Bible. We’re even taking God out of the pledge. I think it’s fair to say we, yes WE are trying to push God out of schools. (Disclaimer, I know there are Christians that are activists and fighting against this and that not everyone is trying to do this but I’m grouping everyone as a nation). We have basically said we don’t want you here, we can handle all of this on our own. God is a PERFECT gentleman. He will not force His way into your life if He is not invited and thus He will not force Himself into our school systems if we don’t want Him there. So it’s interesting that we demand to know where He was and why He didn’t stop this when we told Him we don’t want Him there. Now we turn and blame Him. I think we as a nation have been compromising ourselves for a long time in many different aspects (by long I mean decades). It doesn’t seem like that much of a big deal but each time we compromise it’s like a little drip from a faucet that isn’t initially harmful. All those drips, however turn into a pool of water that will eventually burst and flood through. Every time something outrageous happens, there goes another burst. Regardless of how we have treated Him though I believe He is with each and everyone of those families comforting them and bringing them though, He’s just like that. Now I’m not saying this is THE reason why this happened nor am I trying to downplay the tragedy of what happened. But I think it’s important to sit and reflect on this and realize that the decisions that we make not only affect us but our future generation who may very well be as innocent as these kids. We need to be more purposeful and intentional when making decisions. We need to take responsibility for the roles we may play in big awful things that happen whether it’s directly or indirectly.

4. The shooter has some form of mental illness. I’m not sure if it was directly related to the shooting but it brings up the issue of mental illness in general. We need to be more intentional about making sure we take care of those that are struggling with the issues. I have never had a mental illness before and I can’t begin to imagine having one. So I’m not going to sit on a high horse and judge anyone. As awful as what He did was, we need to pray for him and his family and learn to forgive. The fact that someone would desire to kill 6 & 7 year olds…my what was going on in his head?

I end by urging you all to keep these families in your prayer. They need it now more that ever. The Christmas season in itself is known to be a time period where the suicide rates go up so we need to cry out to the Father on their behalf and anyone else who might be grieving. Those children and teachers were never ours to begin with, they were always God’s. He has now taken them home and I like to believe that they are having a blast up in heaven. The type of fun we can’t even begin to imagine.
R.I.P
* a moment of silence*

-Tasha

No comments:

Post a Comment