Hope and Healing Amidst Hurt and Hate

Hello dear family. I am so blessed to join you all again. I, like all of you, are disturbed and troubled by the headlines as of late. Two mass shootings just weeks apart. Both senseless, both driven by a hate of fellow human beings. What drives someone to that point is a topic for a whole series of posts. If you are a searching for an in-depth analysis of mass shootings and what we can do to help prevent them, please visit my friend’s site at https://www.facebook.com/SVExpose. That being said, what do we do now? What about those left in the wake of the bloodshed and heartbreak?

The answer is simple but it is hard to carry out – we be Jesus. Telling people about Jesus is good, but we have to be him. We are his church, his body. As 1 Corinthians 12:27 tells us,

All of you together are Christ’s body, and each of you is a part of it (NIT).

We must be the hands of Jesus, reaching out to others in need. We have to be the arms of Jesus, embracing those who are hurting. We must be the feet of Jesus, going to the dark places to dispel the darkness with light and love. We must be the lips of Jesus, speaking the truth in love to fight ignorance and deceit. And we must be the heart of Jesus, loving everyone with his selfless, sacrificial love.

Can we do that on our own? Most certainly not. We have to be in a close relationship with God to be like him. If you haven’t done that, I urge you to do that right now. Accept his love and salvation and share it with a world that so desperately needs it.

Now, what can we do right now for those who are hurting like the families of the victims and survivors? We start with prayer and unwavering support. Then, we act. I encourage you to give whatever you can to these verified gofundme pages dedicated to supporting the Boulder, CO victims’ families. You can find more ways to help those affected in Boulder on this site.

Please visit this page for gofundme pages dedicated to the victims of the Atlanta spa shootings.

We still don’t really know why either of these massacres took place. Experts can speculate and offer hypotheses. But in the case of the Atlanta shooting, hate against Asian people is involved. I’m sure many of you have heard the harrowing statistics of the dramatic increase in hate crimes against our Asian brothers and sisters. I will not stand for this. We as the body of Christ must not stand for it. May we stand by them now and in the difficult days ahead and offer them our unwavering love, support, and protection.

I love you all and look forward to joining you again soon.