God, it feels like a sick cycle. It touches every corner of the country. It shatters a new community every time and re-wounds the places where it happened before. An unspeakable act of violence that we have grown far too accustomed speaking about. A place of learning mutated into a battlefield. Children and the adults who have chosen to teach them, clean up after them, and care for them are killed.
The response is an unholy echo. “How could this happen?” “Thoughts and prayers.” “Don’t politicize a tragedy.” “Something must be done.” But there never seems to be enough willingness to do that something. Then slowly or maybe all-too-quickly, people begin to move on. Except the shattered communities that cannot and the families of people like Evelyn, Hallie, William, Cynthia, Mike, and Katherine. The rest of us forget until we are brutally reminded again.
God, help us not forget. Be with the families of the lost and wounded. Be with Covenant and the larger Nashville community. Be with Columbine, Newtown, Parkland, Uvalde, and the scores of other towns whose hearts break with every new tragedy. Be with the children and teenagers in schools who see this pattern and for whom the inaction makes them feel like acceptable sacrifices.
May thoughts and prayers be the starting point for actions and change. May we do what we would if there were a dying person before us and try everything that we can for a life. May this finally be the time our nation as a whole does something. Please. God, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Amen.
