Don't give up

Dear Friends

Last Sunday, in Taft, Oklahoma, after an argument, one person was killed by gunfire and seven were injured at an outdoor festival. The owner of a café just 100 feet from the shooting said, “We are upset, but everything is getting back to normal…the danger has passed.”

But just four days later and 45 miles away in Tulsa, Oklahoma, four people were killed by someone who was angry because he was still in pain after back surgery and decided to murder his surgeon. (It is reported that he bought one of the guns he used just hours before the shooting.)

Everything is not getting back to normal. The danger has not passed.

And I’m not just talking about daily mass shootings (20+ since Uvalde). The following report sadly and soberingly reminds us of the lingering, endless toll on those not included in death and injury statistics:

“Comfort dogs have been deployed to Ulvalde, Texas.” The article describes various groups that train handlers and their dogs to be sent out after traumatic events, including Lutheran Church Charities’ “Comfort Dog Ministry.” LLC’s president and CEO shared a powerful, bittersweet experience he witnessed shortly after Sandy Hook. He was at a community center with his dog, Howe, when a couple arrived with their young son. Howe looked up at the boy, got up, walked over to the boy, rolled into his legs, and the boy came down on top of him. They just laid there, he recalled. After about 10 minutes, the boy lifted Howe’s ear and told him everything that had happened in his classroom; his first words in four days, according to his parents.  

To mark National Gun Violence Awareness Day today (official color is orange for this movement), I ordered the shirt pictured above. The slogan “You have more power than you think” was a marketing tool for the old Cal-Fed bank and I used it often in my Pentecost Day sermons, as I will this Sunday. We have been empowered by the Holy Spirit to act. Just one call or letter or e-mail to a representative, represents hundreds of like-minded voices, and they know that. Your actions have more power than you think!

It will take time, but don’t give up. Keep on calling and writing and doing whatever you are led to do. We owe it to the next generation.

In the meantime, once again, Lord have mercy upon us.

John