Mulling Over Tragedy

I honestly don't watch too much of the news.  I watch mostly kids' shows, some sports, and a little bit of the news--none of which is my choosing, but I don't even like TV, so I don't care at all.  I'd prefer to go without a TV, really.  I usually get my news online and also through Chris because he reads pretty much everything out there and reports to me.  That probably isn't a good thing all the way.  Meh.

However, with the Boston tragedy, I have been keeping on my toes.  I ask, Why?  Just like everyone else, I want to know why someone would do such a horrible thing--why someone would feel the right to take things that aren't their's:  other people's lives and legs.  Now that both suspects are no longer free (and unfortunately one has died), everyone sighs in relief and hopes to find out why.

But I'm sure we won't find out why.  We're trying to make sense of a senseless act.  And the reality is that there is always the possibility of a mental illness in the bombers, which we can't make sense of either.  I'm sure there was a motive and multiple factors, but nothing that will satisfy us.  There's nothing that will make the father of the Richard family say, "Oh, OK.  So that's why my son has died, my daughter lost her legs, and my wife was injured.  Gotcha."

I suppose this happening at the Boston Marathon really hits home.  One of Chris's goals is to run a marathon.  He ran a number of races over the past few years, including a half.  I know what it is like to wake up early, fight to find parking, and wait wait wait in a large crowd to see your loved one come running by.  Each person has fought through so much to get there.  And while I hate running (it's true), Chris loves it and I get a little tear-y-eyed just thinking of him racing.  Because I've watched him fight through seven years of injuries to get to where he is.  Every time he comes home from a run, I ask him how it was, just hoping to hear that his shins or his knee didn't hurt the whole time, which will set him back.  And when he runs in those races, it doesn't matter how well he does (though he has done great and even won his age group and 10th place overall in a race last winter in the freeeezing cold).  What matters is that he is doing it even though it is hard because he loves it.  And to think that someone would step on such a special day for so many people and seek to harm (and kill) their supportive friends and family members...  That is horrible.

In times like this, I feel as all people do.  I am deeply saddened, angry, and afraid.  I want to hide my boys in our home and never come out.  Why is there such evil out there?  But Chris said it so simply the other night, "There are bad people, but there are a lot of good people too."  All we can do is hang on to those "good people," and I hope that I can raise my sons to be just that--good people.  The reality is that we live in a fallen, temporal world, so I cling to the hope of seeking grace daily in my life and showing Christ's love to others--everyone.

"I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” John 10:28-30