I am not generally one to address current events, but today I will share my raw inner angst. Yesterday’s coordinated attacks in Paris struck a nerve that hasn’t been touched in quite a while. There have been plenty of opportunities to be affected, but somehow my mind boxed them all up as impersonal, somewhere-else-events. School and university shootings here in America were simply the actions of a few solitary sickos, perhaps hungry for infamy. Stories of suicide bombers and other violence in the Middle East and Africa came so frequently that I figured surely the people living in those areas must be used to it by now.
What happened to empathy and compassion? How could I think anyone could just get used to the thought of losing loved ones simply because it happens around them often? We’ve become callused to reports of death and destruction. We get tired of feeling, so we distance ourselves from the individual, personal aspects of these events.
Somehow this seems different. The streets of Paris are a lot like many streets across Europe and America. We can see ourselves or our loved ones sitting in cafes and concert halls just like those. It feels more personal, and maybe even more possible for us to be affected by something similar. It awakens those feelings of compassion for those grieving their losses.
Here is my angst. God, forgive me for my hard heart! Give us Your heart of compassion. Give us Your eyes to see the hurting. Awaken our prayers for Your hand to move on their behalf, to comfort the hurting and to heal the brokenhearted.
My post from yesterday morning seemed to carry a lot more weight by the time evening came around. https://laurihawley.wordpress.com/2015/11/13/make-today-count/
Lauri Hawley 