Other(s) Thoughts on Blacksburg Tragedy

I was going to write a recap of the powerful hour our faith community spent in prayer, lament, worship and reflection for the people who've been ravaged by the violence and murder in Blacksburg. Then I read Patrick's description. Here it is:


Tonight at our mid-week event (called Connections. It is usually a seeker friendly service) Josh Graves and Chris Lindsey planned and carried out a touching hour of prayer and hope. Chris led us in songs of mourning, sadness, loss, and dependence upon Christ. Josh spoke to us about the events of Monday at Virginia Tech, going over them minute by minute as they are known so far. We were then directed to four prayer stations around the Family Room (what you might call a sanctuary). At those stations were tables with the photos and the names of those who were killed — some at each station. We were asked to go to each station and pray, by name, for each one lost, their families, friends, comrades, and communities.

Yes, that included the shooter and his family. Everyone was prayed for, by name, many dozens of times by the assembly. Male and female, young and old poured out their hearts to God.

A long set of tables was placed up front. A large supply of note cards was there and we were asked to pour out our hearts in cards that would be given to the parents of those who lost their children. Moms and dads wiped tears as they wrote. Children drew flowers or crosses and wrote in clumsy letters: "I love you. I am sorry" or as I saw on one, "I am sad, too." On the stage was a large sheet of paper so that people could write short lines of encouragement and prayer. That paper will be placed in the campus center of the local church, the cards distributed to the parents, and our assurances of continued prayer and love will be carried to Blacksburg by people already ready to deliver them.

We closed the evening on our knees, led in prayer by Duane Harrison, one of our shepherds; a combat veteran and one who has lost friends and family members, a man well qualified to lead us.

My prayer around the station tables? It was merely one of many, but I will share one version of it with you. "Father, we are asking for an intervention. We ask you to send your Holy Spirit into the hearts of every grieving person, especially the families of the victims and the shooter. We ask you to intervene as well by shutting the mouths of politicians and all who would work their agenda into this tragedy. Turn off the microphones. Turn the cameras away. Allow the hurting their space, and as the world rushes on to the next story — the next starlet, the next movie deal — send your Spirit and your people in among the people of Blacksburg and Virginia Tech like a tide rushing back up an inlet until you surround them. Thank you for sending professors who stood up for their students, even at the cost of their own lives. Thank you for sending us Professor Librescu; a hero, a great man who had already confronted great evil in his life and who, when it reared it’s ugly visage again, recognized it and stepped toward it, saving his students. We know that we are not saved by works, but we ask you to consider his life and reward him for his faithfulness in the cause of goodness, his courage in the face of evil. Father, we know that evil will never leave this world. We know it cannot be legislated out of existence nor can we take so many precautions as to be immune from its encroachment, its attacks. Help us to be faithful when that day — those days — come. As one who lost His own Son, we know you grieve with those who lost their children. Help us to have Your mind. Help us to remember them."

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Scot McKnight wrote these words

Virginia Tech: What can we do?
Filed under: Miscellaneous — Scot McKnight @ 2:30 am
We can pick up the pieces of rubble left aground by the cold-blooded murdering of 32 Virginia Tech students, but we cannot make sense of the senseless shards of rubble we find. A professor who perceived that the young man was deeply troubled and fellow students who knew the same; lives of 33 familes now wrecked and young adults who will not return for the summer; security measures that can never be secure enough to block tragedies and police investigations that didn’t take the turn we wish had been taken. What can we do? What do you think?
(read more…)
We can hold the entire school, the families, the police force, the medical doctors and nurses still tending to the wounded and all involved unto our God as an offering in the hope that we can heal the grieving and guide our country.

But we can’t make enough laws to prevent troubled, isolated individuals from penetrating into the fabric of a reasonably-safe garment to unravel parts of it.

We can be more sensitive to the troubled and more vigilant in seeking help for roommates, students, acquaintances, and those we encounter whom we believe are a threat.

But we can’t find our way into the inner world of everyone so that we can with breathless certainty discern those who might explode at any moment.

We can fight for justice, establish better laws, and live out our vocation in peace and justice and love. And we can urge the media to remove the videos of the murderer — those videos can have no redemptive value.

But we can’t create a completely safe world, a perfect environment, or a society in which no one with evil intent can ever enter.

We can live by the Jesus Creed, but we can’t force anyone to live by it.

For these reasons, and more beside, we can pray what Jesus taught us to pray:

Our Father who art in heaven,

Hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.
Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. Amen.