When we face a tragedy as we did today (4/16/07–Virginia Tech), the obvious question is to ask “Why?” Of course, later for those closest, they will go through the stages of grief that we learned about in psych classes. Yet, for us far away, the biggest feeling is often confusion.
These kinds of moments remind us that we simply aren’t in control of our lives. So often we are lulled to sleep imagining that we are in control. Yet, beneath the veneer the reality is that we careening from thing to thing, moment to moment with no brakes. Worse, it is abundantly clear that someone else may be at the steering wheel.
Of course we maintain control of one big thing–our response and our choices. Not the circumstances. Not the experience. Not the clock. But my attitude remains my own as do my choices.
But how, we think, can we make positive choices when hammered with such tragic news about the fragility of life. We wonder, could that happen in my life, on my campus, in my class. We start to look warily at other drivers on the highway wondering if they are close to road rage. We lock our doors more and walk more cautiously.
Still, how to make solid choices that reflect a deeper sense of purpose and mission? For me, that is a connection to a larger Life Source in the Eternal One who guides life and who holds me in the darkness.
We won’t have good answers about Va. Tech for some time. We’ll hear some screaming for gun control. We’ll hear others demanding more guns in the hands of security on campuses. Some will talk about how this person might have been socially rejected and we all need to be more open. Others may discuss that this person was from a divorced home or abused as a child. Where is the truth in that? Where is Truth?
There is One who alone sustains in the darkness and is Truth. Turn there and listen.