Sitting in Espresso News, one of the local coffee shops here in Boone, I’m having a hard time. While I am here enjoying the sounds and smells of grinding coffee as well as taking in the sights of locals and tourists, there are people in other parts of the world who are having their worlds rocked.
It seems like the world around us is crumbling into eminent despair and that we don’t care.
When I went to take a nap on Wednesday at 11:00 a. m., I didn’t have anything on my mind except how much studying I had done for my upcoming exams and how much this nap would mean to me.
I was content and comfortable, but with that blissful feeling comes utter ignorance.
When I lay down to nap, 14 people in California were unlawfully and unrightfully laid to rest.
When I was lost in a deep slumber, so many workers in the Inland Regional Center were lost in their own building and in their thoughts, wondering if this would be their last moment.
When I was waking up at 12:30 p. m., peaceful and rested, the world was beginning to hear of the tragedy that had taken place.
Families were grieving and bodies were being identified.
Families who were preparing for the holidays are now preparing for funerals.
People that once put their trust into the Lord are losing hope, urging the public to understand that “God isn’t fixing this.”
As a Christian I have a hard time swallowing that magazine cover, but as a human being I have an even harder time swallowing that this is the world we are living in.
Everyone has different beliefs and I am no stranger to that because we live in such a culturally diverse world, but I am a stranger to the loss of hope.
Whether someone is practicing a religion, whether they are just floating along life, or whether they are adamently opposed to the thought of it, we should all ban together to generate a sense of hope and a sense of love in the community, becuase at the end of the day, that’s all we have left.
I don’t know what the gunman and woman were going through.
I don’t know why they felt the need to take such precious and innocent lives like it was their responsibility or like they had a right to believe they could.
I don’t know why we have to live in a world where we fear going into a largely populated areas because we aren’t sure whether or not there will be a mass shooting or a bomb dropped, wiping out that population and our view of the world as we know it.
I don’t know why the people in this world have given up on one another.
I don’t know why we have become so complacent with our positions of personal responsibilty when we hear about the violence, see it cultivating in front of our very eyes, and continue not to care.
I don’t know a lot of things, but what I do know is that change, especially changing our view of what has happened and what will happen, isn’t going to just fall into your lap from the outer stratosphere.
There isn’t a handbook on life that lets us in on knowing how we will be treated, should treat others, or how we will change the world.
Because that decision is largely up to us.
The decision to have hope and the decision to change the world we live in lies in our hearts and in our hands. We were given one life, just one, and we have to make the most of it.
The good, the bad, the ugly, whatever that may be, we need to make ourselves aware that we are the ones who need to change it if we want to live in a better place.
Though it’s an unpopular opinion, my prayers and my heart hold San Bernardino close.
The future is unpredictable, everything in life is, but our actions, thoughts, and feelings are the things we know and can predict.
We have heard that there needs to be a call for peace.
Now it’s time for hope.
Image sources:
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