I will be more encouraging to the children I see everyday at school. I will say nice things to total strangers. I will pray more.
Do you want to blame someone for the recent shootings? The Oregon mall shooting and Connecticut school shooting have left our nation in shock, and anger.
We need look no further than ourselves. We are responsible for those shootings.
I don’t mean in a theoretical, general sort of way that society is responsible.
We are each personally responsible for the shootings that have occurred and the shootings that will occur in the future, unless we proactively plan not to be.
How, exactly, are we responsible? Is there anything we could have done or said to prevent such horrible things from happening?
Yes.
But what?
I think the answer is different for each person.
Our nation has invited this terror into our lives. We have asked for it.
No, we didn’t actually think, “Gee, I hope a bunch of people die today.” But, we have asked for this by not actively denying permission to our young men to do this sort of thing.
We, as a nation, are guilty of sexual sin, of abuse, of killing our voiceless babies, of encouraging unnatural and unhealthy appetites of lust and violence, of instant gratification, of lack of connection, of extreme selfishness, of not teaching our children the truth.
These shootings are not so much a divine punishment as they are a direct consequence.
What can we expect when we tell our youth that this life does not matter and there is nothing after death?
We do not expect greatness from our men, and so they do not give it to us.
What will you do differently? What will you change in yourself?
God, forgive us!
