When a child drowns at a birthday party, when we drive by a deadly car crash, when a traveler goes missing and never turns up… when 12 people are gunned down in a cinema, what goes through your mind? What do you do? Do you change the station, turn off the TV?

Are these events important enough to impose on our pompous schedules?

Life is so fragile, but here in America we aren’t exposed to the realities of  death and destruction. We taste tragedy, but how long do we stop and reflect? How often do we cry over the bloodshed of those we never knew, or mourn for those who lost their mother, father, daughter, sister, brother, or child? Not often enough.

I must plead guilty to my insensitive, selfish attitude towards the fragile state of life. To my ungrateful disposition when I wake in the morning, alive and well. I should jump for joy that myself, and loved ones, are safe – if not just for that moment. Unfortunately, it takes tragedies to make me see the errors of my ways.

“I must plead guilty of an ungrateful disposition when I wake in the morning”

When I heard about the Colorado massacre on the radio this morning – I wept.

I wept for the victims, for the survivors, and mostly for the families who’s loved ones were ripped from their grasp.

I wept for our country, and I wept for humanity.

I wept for the killer.

Shouldn’t this be how we react to the sting of death? Shouldn’t we understand that life is fleeting? Shouldn’t the end of life hit so close to home that our hearts break with those who are broken? Or do we not see that the mangled car on the interstate could have been ours?

“Shouldn’t the end of life hit so close to home that our hearts break with those who are broken?”

I’m challenging myself to not let my fast-passed lifestyle callous my heart. I pray to be filled with love, and understanding, so I can appreciate all seasons of life – the good, the bad, and the deadly.