A student from my school posted a threat online that they would shoot up our school last Tuesday. I learned about it on Monday. The following 24 hours tested my ability to focus on God, and the students He put in my charge, rather than focusing on the overwhelming fear. 

I went to work satisfied that I had been faithful to pray for someone God brought to mind. However, her name wouldn’t leave my mind. I had done what I could, right? But it seemed God was inviting me to do more – to tell her I had prayed for her. Wait! What!

I can feel my nostrils flare, my pulse pick up, and the running mantra of how something is unfair, or hurtful, or wrong gets loud in my mind. I want to take action…..

People told me she was in a better place.... People told me she was no longer hurting….. But those comments didn’t help me to heal.

With a purse full of pills, she had planned to take her life, but she decided to stop at the first church along her way because she had heard it was a sin to take her life. So, just in case, she decided to give God a chance and to prove if He was real, cared and loved her by stopping her.

“Oof” was what I wrote as a comment to a verse during this morning’s devotional time. I could not come up with a more articulate response. I felt like I had been socked in the stomach by the direction and wisdom in the short sentence.