Perspective.

Its been a hard year at my school. The last five or six months have thrown hurdles our way that I never thought I'd run in to. It's amazing how much a few events can turn your life around and make you reexamine everything about it. This evening at the basketball there was a shooting, I wasn't there so I can't speak on specific details, but a guy from another school came with a gun and decided to discharge it in the parking lot. Having the conversation of gun-shots-were-fired-at-our-school is not a conversation that you ever want to have with your friends in the car next to you at a stop light. Shannon and I drove the rest of the way home literally in silence....Thankfully no one was hurt physically; however having guns recklessly go off next to you is not a memory that leaves quickly. After the initial thought of holy cow I hope all my friends are safe and no one was harmed I thought about the shooter. I then realized that there must be something in his life that caused this outburst of violence and sent up a little prayer that whatever it was would cease and that he would find peace after this terrible event. My school will now be infinitely known as the school that got shot up after a basketball game, and although that will cause much distress and hatred in the student body toward this guy there is no reason to hate him. God tells us to "love our neighbor as ourselves." Yes, this guy intentionally shot a loaded gun in our school parking lot while it was full of teenagers, and while we have all the right in the world to be insanely angry at him we also have the ability to forgive. To love him like he is one of our fellow Patriots and forgive. 

I know there's a possibility of getting a lot of heat for looking at the situation this way, but isn't this just a great example of how to apply how God instructs us to live our lives everyday? "Love your enemy." He endangered the safety of our classmates, he is our enemy, and we have every right to hate. But love is the true answer. The law will punish him for his crimes and that is enough, at least for me.