In Regards to Florida....

I wish we could have 24 hours to just collectively hurt with people, before everyone dashes to their favorite political narratives.

— Brant Hansen

Broken people do broken things that hurt people who sometimes respond in broken ways.

My heart is shattered to hear of what happened in Florida, as I'm sure is true of everyone else. Horrible acts committed against innocent people. And there will be politics to debate, legislation made, many fights to be won down the road.

But not today. Today, can we simply mourn for the tragedy? Forget your ideology and the thoughts rolling through your mind about Islam, the LGBT community, gun legislation.

That fight can be fought another day. But today.... Let your heart grieve. Mourn with those who mourn and comfort the brokenhearted. Christians were never called to somehow fix legislation or win  every argument.

We were called to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly (Micah 6:8). So comfort those who mourn (Isaiah 61). Keep a tight rein on your tongue, for if you speak hard words to those who grieve, it will be taken as poison, even if your intent was medicine. It is better to remain silent and love well than try to speak and have your words be heard caustically and cause strife among your brothers.

Tomorrow the papers will be written and the debate will commence, fed on the fire of our anger and betrayal. Lives lost today will soon be little more than weapons in the hands of politicians, and the people's sorrow wil be twisted to fight for one cause or another. 

But today.... Today we can choose not to fight. We can choose to stand as brothers in the midst of a tragedy that attacked not only a community but a nation. We can let this cause discord and tension, or we can simply come together, not in a stand against an enemy but in a deep, deep sorrow as we mourn for the at least 50 individuals whose lives were ended by a broken, angry man.

And to the families of the dead, I'm sorry. Sorry that a madman killed your sons and daughters. Sorry that we as a nation have taken advantage of murder to prove a point. Sorry that there will be those who scorn your children and brothers and I'm sorry they will say the death was deserved. Your children were people. The murderer still a person. The ones who will not support you because of who your son loved? Still people.

We are only people after all. Whatever label you put on us, whatever organization we claim allegiance to, whatever statistic we become, we are a people of souls and a people of pain, and we've all suffered and we all act out of that suffering. Broken people do broken things, but we can still choose to sit in silence for a moment, not proving a point or pointing a finger; only weeping for this tragedy and sitting with the suffering. It is from the quiet, gentle spirit that the oil of gladness is poured out, and garments of praise can be adorned. This is love, not that we raise ourselves above, but that we become so lowly in spirit that the ones we minister to can see beyond us, past our opinions and our pride, to where their weeping Father, the only True Comforter, waits for them to come.