But as I scan the local headlines these past few weeks, I can’t help but have a heavy heart for our state and the unprecedented amount of violence we have endured the past twelve or so days. “Twelve dead in twelve days” is a heavy headline for any place, but in a state as small and cozy as ours it seems more like a headline from the Vietnam War.
Well, I guess it’s a warm and cozy state for you and me. But for some folks the world is a cold dark place, no matter how beautiful or scenic your surroundings. Some folks live in a darkness that you and I could never understand or comprehend. In the beautiful month of April thirteen years ago Columbine high school experienced a violent act that could never really be explained. Then five years ago, Virginia Tech experienced the same sort of event, times three. These acts of mass violence were perpetrated by “troubled loners or outsiders” and it was only afterwards did people around see the signs of what was to come.
But that’s not the conversation that we usually have after a violent event like these, or the recent troubles we have had here at home. Usually talk turns to gun control or the current economic climate in small towns and down and out places, and the psychological ills of violent media like video games and movies.
These are worthy subjects of consideration, and worth more time and conversation than an internet posting or a bumper sticker can provide. But it seems to me, and to my simple mind that the heart of the matter lies in the heart of man. The above mentioned factors are critical, but they seem like factors in a larger picture.
Before the outbreak of the recent Iraq war a reporter on MTV asked the musician Sting if he was against the war, and he said that he was. When pressed as to what his solution to violent tyrants like Saddam Hussein was, Sting responded with perhaps the wisest words ever uttered on MTV (among the daily pearls of wisdom offered on this network). He said “I would respond with the old artist’s answer of ‘love’. And what I mean by that is that it’s impossible for me to believe that if Saddam Hussein had experienced true love as a child, the true fierce love of a family or community, that he could ever have become this way.”
When I heard this I knew Sting was right. It’s about love, but not the kind of greeting card, Nicholas Sparks novel version of love. It’s the kind that cares for others and shows concern and regard for those at the ragged edge of society, loners and troubled souls who fill our headlines these days.
When Jesus (another eminently quotable person) was asked by the religious establishment of his day what the most important commandment (or “thing to do”) was, he answered with these two elegant lines; “love the Lord your God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself.”
This answer truly bothered the organized religion folks of his day (that should make some of your very happy) because it was too simple. Surely living the virtuous life should be more complex than this.
But it isn’t. It’s so simple. (But as my wise Pastor, Jon would say, “just because something is simple that doesn’t make it easy.”) If the one thing I am called to do down here (in regard to other people) is to “love my neighbor as myself” then that means looking out for one another in a serious way. And I know that Jesus meant more than just our literal neighbors because when the questioners responded to him by asking “and who is my neighbor?” Jesus responded by telling the parable of the Good Samaritan, a story that most of us have heard at one time or another.
Unless you are in the latest bio dome project, in complete isolation, you have neighbors, both literal and figurative. We need to look out for our own. What if someone had reached out to one of the perpetrators of these crimes in our state way before things started to sour in their lives? For some, that reaching out would have had to happen long ago. But it’s not too late to reach out to those in need right now. It doesn’t have to be complex; it can be a small act of kindness or a minute of your time. But if we all did it, if we all looked out for that person on our right and left, on the other side of our cubicle wall or classroom, then who knows what we could head off in the future.
My six year old daughter, Princess Supergirl knows this is true. When we were talking at bedtime tonight she asked me what I was going to write about and I told her (in an edited “Dad” version of course). She responded by saying “There are a couple of kids in my class who don’t get along with anybody and are always alone. I try and show them love and sometimes it works and everybody has a good time and sometimes they are still mean.”
To that I said “It always ‘works’ sweetheart. Sometimes it’s hard but you never know what you can accomplish.”
Sometimes you can save a life.
