comfort in the midst of devastation

 

My sweet little town was shaken by a mass shooting yesterday. 

I can't believe I am even writing that statement, but it's true. I live in Collierville, Tennessee and around 1:15-1:30 p.m. on Thursday afternoon, a shooter entered the grocery store that I shop in several times a week and that I live ONE MILE away from and started shooting people. He fatally shot one at the scene, and injured/critically injured several more. One of the ones critically injured was someone I used to work with, an old friend who loved my boys like they were her own grandkids, who later died at the hospital. 

Other people I know and love were there, either working or shopping, but they were able to escape.

I still can't believe I'm writing this. You know how much I love my Friday favorites posts, but I can't bring myself to participate in that today, as people I know and love are still reeling from yesterday's events. The thing I hear consistently when something like that happens and that sounds so cliché is true—I can't believe something like this would happen in my sweet little town that I love and grew up in, the one I feel so safe in. But nobody is ever immune to something like this, right? 

I couldn't walk away from the television yesterday as I sat in shock and watched it all unfold before me.

(These stats changed as time went on.) I've never been so thankful to have this godly man as our police chief. He is a friend we used to go to church with and whose wife attends Bible study with me each week. My heart goes out to all the emergency personnel as they are still working the active scene even as I write this post at 7:08 p.m. Thursday night. My own husband and oldest son are there as well, and were called in as part of Emergency Services with the Shelby Country Sheriff's department. This was my husband walking out the door before he left tonight.

So, what do we do when something like this happens? Who do we turn to when we can't walk away from watching the news play out before our eyes? How do we go on and about our daily lives once more? Do we cave into the fear and stay home? Do we push it all aside and try to deny that the world we live in is dangerous every single day of our lives? What do we do? How do we act?

Let me tell you about my friend, Jesus. He came to seek and save the lost. (Luke 19:10)

Who are the ones who are lost? 

According to 2 Thessalonians 2:10, they are the ones who are perishing because they did not accept the love of the truth and so be saved.  In John 3:16, Jesus tells us that God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. We live in a sinful (broken, dying) world and Jesus came to save us from certain death by giving us eternal life with Him on the very day that we breathe our very last breath here on this earth. 

We are sinful, because that is the very underlying disease that is in the heart of every person on earth. Jeremiah 17:9 says this: The heart is more deceitful than anything else, and incurable— who can understand it? 

God is the opposite of sin—He is good, just, righteous, honorable, trustworthy! He is good, even when bad things happen around us. He does allow bad things to happen to good people, it does not mean that He doesn't love us. His desire is that everyone would come to know Him (2 Peter 3:9), but sadly, many people do not ever come to accept Him as Lord and Savior of their life. He doesn't force us into this kind of relationship with Him, He offers to all mankind the right to choose for themselves who they serve, and that is either the world or the Savior of the world.

In every occasion, God is good, because He is God. It's at the very depth of who He is. I trust Him with my life. I choose to continue on with my life as usual, I will refuse to cave into the fear of what could happen. I could be killed tomorrow by a car speeding down my road, I could be diagnosed with cancer in five years, I could die in my sleep this weekend or I could contract Covid at any given moment. The Lord knows all things all of time is in His hands and not one thing surprises Him. Isn't that comforting to you? It is to me. 

I gain comfort from the knowledge that His Word is true and that He is who His Word says He is. How do I know this in my heart? I trust. I believe. I have faith. At some point, one has to exercise faith in trusting this. Faith, according to Hebrews 11:1, is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen. I choose to have faith that all of this is true.  

So, who is He?

He is my comforter.

2 Corinthians 1:3-4 says this: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. He comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any kin of affliction, through the comfort we ourselves receive from God.

God is my refuge and strength. Read Psalm 46:1 below.

God is our refuge and strength, a helper who is always found in times of trouble.

God is my peace.

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:7)

There is so much more that He is to me, but for the sake of time, I'll stop with those. When times are hard, He comforts me and He is close to me.

The LORD is near the brokenhearted; he saves those crushed in spirit. (Psalm 34:18) 

I know that I can lean on Him and He will carry me through whatever I face. 

You can have that very thing, my friend. If you are reading this and you don't know Him, what are you waiting for? Is He drawing you? Don't delay! We are not promised one more day on this earth. 

I love what Proverbs 16:9 says—A person's heart plans his way, but the LORD determines his steps.

I am living proof of this statement. Yesterday I had made plans to eat lunch with my friend Dedee. We met at a place about fifteen minutes away from where I live and my original plan had been to have lunch and to leave the restaurant around 12:45-1:00 at the latest, because I had to make a Kroger run before going on to my next errand, which was a meeting on the town square at 2:00. That had been my plan and I actually have it written out just like that in my journal. But the Lord determines my steps, and my lunch with my dear friend ran way over what I'd planned. I didn't make it away from the restaurant until about 1:35 and I was so pressed for time that I had to go right on to my 2:00 errand, with the plan to go to Kroger afterward.

Friends, are you reading that if my day had gone like I had planned, that I would have surely been in that Kroger at that very instant of this evil act? 

It is no coincidence that it happened this way! The Lord is sovereign. He is the one who is guiding my every step. I ask once more: do you know Him?

He is so wonderful, even and especially in the midst of such tragedy. I still love Him, I still trust Him and I choose to live my life boldly for Him. There is evil all around us, even if we never come into direct contact with it, but it is there. Greater is He that is in me than he (the enemy, evil) that is in the world (1 John 4:4).

I choose to live. I choose to share Jesus with everyone I come into contact with. I choose to remember that His perfect love casts out all fear (1 John 4:18) and I will not be a slave to it anymore. 

All of that being said, will you join me in praying for my little town? Please pray for the families who are affected by this tragic event. Pray for our emergency personnel and for the employees and customers who were carrying on about their everyday life when all of this happened. Please pray for all of the victims and their families. I cannot imagine their horror at what they witnessed take place. I have friends who were working there and who were shopping there when this happened, and one was critically wounded and died later at the hospital. Please pray for Olivia's family as they make their way here.

Our small town is devastated. Our comfortable, little idyllic town has been shockingly tampered. Please join us in prayer. 

Thanks in advance. Love to all.