The Virginia Tech massacre is incomprehensible. I cannot fathom or begin to process the horror and the grief that is being felt as a result of that act.
Then today I come across a nondescript news flash about the death of a Peace Corps worker, Julia Campbell. I find myself identifying with the victim -- a person devoted to work in the Philippines, travelling in the very places that I frequent. A distance runner. A blogger. Photos of her standing where I have stood at the Taal volcano. A person making the world a better place. The news flash becomes personal as I read her blog.
Now these strangers are gone.
And I go about my work quickly while carrying the distant emotion of grief. It is like a dull, toxic stress. This experience seems to happen every week.
Do you ever feel this way? What we are experiencing is a dim reflection of God's heart. We see for a moment what He sees. We feel a tiny bit of what He feels. We are helpless to fix or to change the situation.
One of my favorite fictional works of all time is "For Whom the Bell Tolls", by Ernest Hemmingway. In reflection I often remember the quote that opens the book:
No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee." John Donne (1572-1631)
To be a Christian is to identify with God's heart for the world. It is to identify with the suffering. It is to realize that He is present with those who suffer.
I am challenged to keep my heart soft. To respond with prayer and care. To "mourn with those who mourn" (Romans 12:15). To look for proactive outcomes in my personal life as well as in the areas of influence that I possess.
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