By Lacey Gunter
Hello darkness my old friend, I've come to talk to you again...
Moments like these can feel so dark and silent. Silent like the smothering of hundreds of innocent voices all at once. Silent like the shock of millions of people left speechless with grief. Darkness like the shadow of hatred, blocking out the light of peace and hope.
We've all stood here before. How painfully familiar this is starting to become. It would be so easy to abandon ourselves to the fear and the anger and the mistrust. To look upon our neighbors as suspects and those we've never met as enemies. Or even to abandon feeling at all. To close our hearts off to even the slightest mention of human suffering.
But as easy as it may seem, it won't help. It won't heal the wounds. It won't end the suffering. It won't bring back those who are lost. It won't even make us feel better. Instead of abandoning our humanity, we must embrace it. For this is not only our duty, it is our privilege; to mourn with those who mourn and comfort those who stand in need of comfort. To witness to the world, especially to those who chose hatred, that when we expand our circle of love, we find hope and healing. That through our faith and our willingness to forgive, we find the strength to stand up, to stand our ground and to stand it together.
Hello darkness my old friend, I've come to talk to you again...
Moments like these can feel so dark and silent. Silent like the smothering of hundreds of innocent voices all at once. Silent like the shock of millions of people left speechless with grief. Darkness like the shadow of hatred, blocking out the light of peace and hope.
We've all stood here before. How painfully familiar this is starting to become. It would be so easy to abandon ourselves to the fear and the anger and the mistrust. To look upon our neighbors as suspects and those we've never met as enemies. Or even to abandon feeling at all. To close our hearts off to even the slightest mention of human suffering.
But as easy as it may seem, it won't help. It won't heal the wounds. It won't end the suffering. It won't bring back those who are lost. It won't even make us feel better. Instead of abandoning our humanity, we must embrace it. For this is not only our duty, it is our privilege; to mourn with those who mourn and comfort those who stand in need of comfort. To witness to the world, especially to those who chose hatred, that when we expand our circle of love, we find hope and healing. That through our faith and our willingness to forgive, we find the strength to stand up, to stand our ground and to stand it together.
Beautiful, Lacey. <3
ReplyDeleteI like this just saying
ReplyDeleteThis is beautiful--and it's something I've been pondering over the last few days. The answer to all of this is love. We have to love our Father enough to mourn for His children, even if we don't have the capacity to love the children (yet, or it's imperfect).
ReplyDeleteI have lots more of deep thought by Leann about this, but this is YOUR blog post so I won't hijack it. Let's just say that what you've written is beautiful, and thought-provoking, and has led to a deepening of my own pondering. Thank you.
-Leann