it changes things

I know it's hard to feel real sorrow for hurting

people that are totally unconnected to you.

It's sometimes hard to remember to pray... but

whether we feel it or not we are connected. I don't

think I know anyone that was killed or injured in the

shooting, but I do know people affected. I know a few people there and even though they are safe. Even though they didn't maybe see what happened

with their own eyes... their lives will never be the same. Even if they live in hope instead of fear... they will live with an awareness that their lives can touched by these things. I remember very clearly living with that type of awareness in Israel, looking at people differently. Profiling.

A friend, who's getting married there in a couple of months and whose parents

are professors there said this in an email today:

" Everything is okay with my family. They're a bit shaken up, but they're ok. Its just bazaar. I mean, I put on my wedding invitations "at the Hahn Horticulture Garden at Virginia Tech" but people are basically going to read "come to my wedding at Columbine" and that is weird to try and think about, that that's what people will think about for a very long time now. The feeling you get when you hear or think about Columbine is now the same or worse as Virginia Tech. Thats where I'm from. I'm from the place where the shooting was. So strange. but I'm ok, it just takes a while to sink in."

I know another girl who knew the first guy to be killed (Ryan Clark). There is a connection. Closer than you may have thought. And one that is closer still. Our heavenly Father, the One we hopefully talk to every day, knows them... knows their hearts. Aches with those grieving family and friends. It is so easy to be self involved. Say to one another "oh how tragic" and go on our merry way. But maybe today, if you're reading this, you can take just a minute to pray. It is amazing to know you are being uplifted in prayer. It's palpable. There have been times when I knew I was being prayed for, and when I knew it had ceased.

Pray with me that in the midst of the grief and the overwhelming hurt, in the midst of this new sense of fear that has attached itself to those on that campus - that people would see God, that they would find how much His heart is for them. That they would be overwhelmed by His love.