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One week ago today, a horrendous tragedy took place at The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee.

An armed former student broke into the school killing three nine year old students, the head of the school, a custodian, and a substitute teacher before she was killed by local law enforcement.

How do I even pray in the midst of this horror?
When will this madness end?
I feel so helpless, what can I do?

Questions proliferated. Tears and more tears. I listened to my friends. We sought to point each other to God, to truth. But still ANGER!

At first, I needed to borrow a prayer I found online unable to form my own. I shared it on Echoes of Grace last Thursday. Perhaps you might need its help too.

Once again, the protests, the cries for gun reform. But has that made a difference?

As the days went by, as I connected with family and friends, it became obvious. Gun reform is necessary, but it is not the answer.

Crumbling moral values are stampeding across our land.
Confusion, hurt, mental anguish and more abound.
This is the reality that must be addressed.

A time is coming, Jesus is coming again, and then, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes,
and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” Revelation 21 4

But as we wait for that glorious day, what can we do?

1) Yes, connect with your senators and representatives. Let your voice be heard.

AND …

2) Keep praying. Jesus understands agony. “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup form me … And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” Luke 22: 42 and 44 (underlines mine). In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus knowing the reality of his crucifixion was only hours away, the intensity of this moment drew him to desperate prayer.

Paul’s prayer for the Galatians, is another example of desperate prayer. “my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you!” Galatians 4:19 (underlines mine).

And we’re commanded, “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Hebrews 4:16; and “pray without ceasing,” I Thessalonians 5:17.

3) Love your neighbor.  Six degrees of separation is a construct with the idea that all people are six or fewer social connections away from each other.

As I connected with my friends last week, as I read news articles and Facebook posts, I was amazed at how many people I know were in some way connected with the Covenant School tragedy. One knew the pastor of the church Covenant School is connected with; another had spoken at the church; one had led worship at the school; the music director used to be the music director of our home church; their children went to school right across the street; his friend was mentored by the head of the school; and more. And I was connected with all of them. Connections were rampant. Six degrees of separation.

“For the whole law (including the moral law) is fulfilled in one word,
‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'”
Galatians 5:14 (parentheses mine)

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another:
just as I have loved you,
you also are to love one another.”
John 13:34

“Owe no one anything, except to love each other,
for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.”
Romans 13:8

I was forced to ask …

Who are my one anothers?
Who are my neighbors?

There are neighborhood neighbors.
There are extended family neighbors.
There is a neighbor who gave me a manicure.
There are church neighbors.
There are neighbors at my favorite coffee shop.

“Indeed, I count everything as loss
because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.”
Philippians 3:8

As I prayed, what do you want me to count as loss? The answer was immediate, count as loss my hesitancy to love my neighbor.

What does that look like to love our neighbors? Together, we can make a difference in the crumbling moral values of our nation. There is only six degrees of separation.

 

Copyright: Sue Tell, April 2023