A Time to Act...A Time to Lament

As the news unfolded yesterday about the elementary school shootings in Connecticut, my heart was swollen with grief...how can this happen? Expressions of shock and pain rolled across the pages of my facebook newsfeed...every media outlet carried the story...it was inescapable. As it should have been...inescapable. Change doesn't come in those moments when we are able to turn a blind eye. Maybe this horrific event will be a catalyst for change.

One friend posted this: "I'm sorry, people, but posting on FB about how sad we are, raging at the "machine" and having some breakfast, will not make the children any safer. It's time for action. Anyone up for it????"

I pray people answer the growing call to action. Positive, fruitful action, that is. I am starting to see a lot of polarization around tangents and side issues that serve only to deflect our attention and prevent real change from happening.

But as important as it is to bring about change in the coming weeks, months, years...we also must be mindful of our very human need to grieve. Time to come together in community and lament. To weep in the darkness, waiting for the light to shine again in our hearts.

I read the Book of Lamentations yesterday and my eyes kept stopping at verse 16:

For these things I weep;
   my eyes flow with tears;
for a comforter is far from me,
   one to revive my courage;
my children are desolate,
   for the enemy has prevailed. 

I thought, yes, sometimes that is how we feel. Discouraged, desolate...as if the enemy has prevailed. Almost. But not quite. I also recalled the words of the Psalmist. Psalm 147, which President Obama quoted: "God heals the brokenhearted, and binds up their wounds." And Psalm 23, that source of great comfort in our times of grief: "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me." 

And I saw my facebook newsfeed fill with an outpouring of prayers for all those affected, even from those who are normally (and often vehemently) non-religious. We wrap each other in the arms of comfort, setting aside our differences. And in the face of such love, the enemy cannot prevail. Now I pray that the anger and pain in our hearts gives way to justice seeking, and not vengeance or apathy.

"The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it." (John 1:5)