Save a Life: Some People are Just Dying to be heard

Today, tragedy struck a little to close to home. A poor child thought that the only way out was to hurt others as much as he was hurting inside. He called out for help, but no one answered and we are left picking up the pieces asking "Why". My heart breaks at the sadness that families are facing tonight. My heart goes out to all the friends, brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, grandmothers, grandfathers, aunts, uncles, cousins etc. that were affected today.

We could continue to ask "why", but that is not going to change anything. Nothing right now can reverse back in the past and change what went wrong, but what we need to do today is look toward the future in how we can prevent what happened in the past to happen again in the future.

We can blame society, culture, facebook, people, etc., but will that get us anywhere, no. In order to change these things that we blame, is to first change ourselves.

In order to change ourselves, we can learn a lot from the teachings of Jesus.

"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye." Matthew 7:3-5

So before we tell others or tell the parents of the child involved in today's events what they did wrong, look at yourself first and ask yourself "Are you blameless? Are you perfect? Do you have the right to judge?"

I am a sinful human being, by no means perfect in any terms. I screw up, I falter, I totally biff it at times, but I am blessed by a Saviour that gave his life to make me blameless in his Father's eyes. Am I deserving of this forgiveness? No, but that is why it is called Grace.

"No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.”

Acts 15:11

The most amazing thing is that we are saved just as we are. We don't have to change in order to receive God's gift of eternal life. He will accept me as my messed up self. He accepts me and loves me in my worst condition and as I grow in my relationship with him, I become refined in his fire and become as pure as gold. When I mess up, he helps me pick myself up again and we continue on the path toward my final resting place in heaven. When I have no more strength to go on, he gives me strength, when I have lost all hope, he gives me hope, when I am riddled in self-doubt, he gives me faith, when I can't breathe another breath, he gives me the breath of life, when I feel as though I am not loved, he will always love me, when I feel alone, he will never leave me.

He is my Rock, my Salvation, my King of Kings, my Lord of Lords, my Prince of Peace, my Father, my Creator. How awesome is he!

My heart breaks that the child today was not able to get to know God, although I do not know his heart and know how much he is loved. Tragedies like these should open our eyes and be a challenge to all of us, to pay attention to those around us and let all of those we know about the God that loves each and one of us. It can be simple as having a conversation and truly caring about what the other is saying to a ARK (Act of Random Kindness). You may have Saved a Life. I pray that each of us will be challenged to look around ourselves at those we know and those we don't know and start caring. Lives can be changed by simply caring as God cares for us.