Walt suggests that to reach students in this culture we must recognize that their world is filled with violence.
I'll never forget pulling into the church parking lot that Tuesday morning around 11:45 a.m. I had just come from chapel at Denver Seminary. I parked my car and walked into the main office and it was mayhem.
A woman who attended our church was frantically putting her things together in the office and asked me, "Have you heard?" I had no clue what she was talking about. She tried to explain, "We think Kacey has been shot at Columbine this morning." Kacey was her niece.
Silence in my soul. Chaos in the room. What ensued over the next few days was only able to happen because of the grace of God. Walking along the memorial at Clement Park. Hosting prayer times. Talking to students. Hearing the story of one of the girls who died who had been on winter retreat that January. In shock Kacey's life was spared that day in the library as she looked down the barrel of a gun. Amazed at the response of our training time at Foothills Bible Church where I think 400 people showed up to hear Rich Van Pelt. Seeing our SW Connection of youth pastors unite to reach our community. Watching our jr. high and sr. high students weep. Seeing denominational lines not matter. Funerals. Death. Saved lives. Looking into Rachel Scott's car and weeping. Seeing Katie Couric at Starbucks on Bowles. Walking the halls of Columbine every week as school started back on patrol.
April 20, 1999.
I went to Kacey's wedding this past summer. She was a radiant bride. She had survived something that I still can't imagine happened. I was honored to be there that day. As I sat with my wife I couldn't help but think of the students who lost their lives that day. Their parents would never experience this day with them.
Our culture is pervaded by violence and it is causing more and more students to live in fear. School shootings are the big stories, but what about all the suicide and cutting that teenagers are doing to deal with their emotional pain. Maybe the biggest story as it relates to violence is how much of it can be stopped if we stop and listen to what is going on their souls. Maybe the biggest story is not blaming violence on video games, but recognizing that there is a bent towards evil in us all and the only thing that can stop the darknes of evil is the light of Christ.
Even though our students walk through the valley of the shadow of death they don't have to fear evil because where there is a shadow there is LIGHT!
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2 comments:
Powerful, Dan! Yeah, even being further away from Columbine, I remember those events like they were yesterday. And what a message Jerry gave at the memorial service. Just last year I had a student in a class who told me during a break she was a Columbine survivor--8 years later--and she still preferred not to talk about it. We had race riots in my high school my junior year and my best friend had his jaw broken by an out of control mob of black kids that surged past him and his locker (and just missed me) and that was surreal enough. I can't even imagine what it must have really been like at Columbine!
Still remember standing in that mass of humanity as Jerry delivered his message. Yes, what a message! Thanks for the short story of the survivor. I was helping someone move a month ago and they were a survivor. As we were carrying furniture he was crying, still wrestling with making his theology practical to this situation. Thanks for being a part of my story and helping me shape my theology during those times and even today! That out of control mob would have sacred me to death. Have a great weekend DR. B!
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