As I sit alone in a hotel in San Antonio miles away from pulpit and family I think about what took place last weekend during a service of worship in Sutherland Springs, TX. It is hard not to think about it and yet our “average” weeks are now filled with so much crazy that we are quick to forget.
Not those who have lost someone,
the rest of us.
We are not heartless nor do we lack empathy, we just don’t know how much more we can take of the darkness.
Maybe these words do not connect with you. Maybe you have a different take. Maybe you want me to be more explicit with my thoughts about gun control. Maybe the mere reading of the words gun control upsets you and you have decided to stop reading.
Maybe you are like those who have said privately and publically “I want to be informed, but I honestly don’t want to check the headlines in the news, because I am afraid of what is next.”
Our darkest hours are never completely void of the Light. We have not plummetted into an abyss that we will not be able to escape from in the days that follow.
How shall we journey on in the days to come?
I am committed to “not be confromed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of (my) minds, so that (I) may discern what is the will of God – what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Rom. 12:2
In order to live as a resurrected child I can ill afford to let the darkness that I see claim my mind and corrupt my heart. Therefore I will drench my soul in the Word, I will seek to partner with those who want to rise above the darkness, I will lift this broken life unto my Lord.
Hope is here today and we have overcome!
Rev. Shawn J. Smith 
I am just like the person who stated “I want to be informed . . . but I’m afraid of what’s next.” Long ago I learned not to be conformed to this world, so why do I continue to cower from the violence around me instead of confronting it? All I can do is cross myself with the Sign of the Cross and whisper, “God, have mercy.”