Personal musings after the VTech tragedy

I wrote this shortly after the Virginia Tech shootings because my thoughts would not let me go. Anyone who knows me well knows that I tend to think a lot - worry at a problem like a dog with a bone. Many times I find if I write these thoughts down I'll be allowed to have my brain back. One caveat - this is not a treatise on the problem of evil, a rant for justice, or a memorial to those lost. Much has already been written along those lines, by people more qualified than I. But several close friends were directly affected by the tragedy, and it is in honor of them I share this - one seeker to another....

from April 24, 2007

Great tragedies bring clarity of mind in a way nothing else does. Reeling from the shock of learning that a Virginia Tech student had just shot 32 people and himself dead, I was almost flattened to see the video footage the killer had made just prior to committing his heinous crime.

Since I couldn't seem to stop thinking about it, I began to analyze why I could not let it go. I realized that what had me so on edge was the fact that this one event is all anyone will remember of this young man's life. All of his other actions, accomplishments, and accolades are now null and void. He will only be remembered as a killer. We heard his voice and saw evil personified. How sad. And how sad that the heroic and self-sacrificing voices of possibly millions of ordinary people every day go unheard, un-lauded, unknown.

That was the day I realized God has given us a priceless, precious gift. He has given us a Voice. Each Voice is precious to God and to our world. Perhaps if more people in that young man's life had used a voice of love, of caring, of friendship, there would still be 32 innocent souls going about their lives. Most of us will have to content ourselves to live our lives in obscurity. A few may get their 15 minutes of fame. In the grand, sweeping vista of history, few achieve lasting fame or even infamy.

But on that day, April 16, 2007 - another day which will live in infamy, I decided I will make my Voice heard. The Bible says that a word aptly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver. I finally understand, I must share this with the world.
----------------------------------------------------------

a postscript: The above musings and the encouragement of friends convinced me to start this blog. God had been whispering in my ear for some years about the possibility of me turning my thoughts to writing. I had been resisting these nudges for some time (yeah, Moses and I have a lot in common). That day I really felt God giving me a wake up call. Someone wise once said that inside each of us is our own unique song. It is not up to us to decide whether our song is good, but simply to sing it, else our music is lost for eternity. May my words be my song....