Tragedy and Consequences

Don't get me wrong. I am loath to create a blog for my rantings. That's not what I hope to use this blog for, but rather as a place for ideas and thanks-giving. That said, here is an idea with some small ranting. Kindness is crucial to the relative peace that we enjoy in this particular country. Kindness to the point of sacrifice, I think. I am struck by this idea. Witness recent events with public/private schools, a supposed safe place for kids. What are we to make of the recent shootings? Who are these people? And how do they justify taking the lives of children as a remedy for their bitterness? I know God is merciful. I confess with no pleasure that I hate people who enact such violence. I want to see their lives ended, and painfully. But this is not God's idea of goodness. He wants to see restoration. He wants us to love our neighbors and even our enemies, those who don't just disturb our lives but ruin them.
This is hard to take. Even for me, utterly outside of the drama that has ripped through these families and communities. But God requires of us a "giving over" of ourselves, our lives, our dearest treasures. He wants His transforming Love to be the rock that we cling to, even while being brutally battered by life's tragedy. Like little barnacles, hanging on for dear life. But this not because He wants us to suffer. He wants to provide. He wants to meet our every need in surprising, overwhelming ways. He wants to love us more than we imagined we could be loved.
Still the pits of life are dark and dank and putrid. But when our hearts fill our chests as we witness some moment of sparkling beauty that seems to be an unnatural side-step from the commotion in our lives, we are reminded that Hope lives - in spite of, and in victorious response to, the darkness.