April, 2007...a tragic day when Virginia Tech, only minutes from my home place, faced a horrific massacre. My family members had been in and out of that building for years. Friends from church, our neighborhood and community worked at VT...and were in terrible danger. Lives were destroyed and damaged.
August, 2015...a tragic day when a reporter and photographer from WDBJ7, from Roanoke, VA, (the city where I was born and where friends and relatives still reside), were murdered during a live news segment. Shock, disbelief and senseless loss were recognized all over the nation as the Roanoke and Southwestern Virginia community grieve this tragedy.
I began thinking. Two terrible tragedies so close to my homeplace. Precious lives destroyed for no good reason. Sadly, tragedies do not cease after the news coverage of these events. There are shootings, wars, crimes and violence all over the world
Yet there are other daily tragedies. Some people are giving up hope. Some people feel unloved, abandoned, rejected and worthless. Some people are searching for somewhere to belong...unsuccessfully. Some people are weary, worn and without purpose in their journeys. Some people are broken inside while hiding it outside. We never know what someone...anyone...is feeling, facing, or experiencing...at any moment.
Oh, how I wish I could have stopped horrible tragedies I have seen in my lifetime...9/11, Virginia Tech Massacre, Columbine, WDBJ7's loss of two young lives yesterday...and others. I know I could not have prevented them. Yet...I do believe that our daily actions...our daily attitudes...our daily choices...our daily lives...would make a tremendous difference in this world. Caring more, listening more, reaching out more, loving more, respecting more, responding more and living more compassionately...may touch lives much more than ever imagined. If only we could love one another as He loves us, lives may be changed now and eternally. O God, please heal our hearts, our lives, our country and our world!<3~thl
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