I am just seeing your powerful Notes. I would have definitely dropped this link on the countless posts following the senseless killing of Kirk. People could benefit, emotionally; perhaps even physiologically. Could this tragedy simply be a severe case of one individual denying The First Amendment rights of another human being. Charlie Kirk was silenced. We should be sad based on this alone. Oh..."Good afternoon. I'm hear to speak to you about ..and you may or may not agree.' Then here come the rifles. Are we desensitized? Absolutely. The truth is America is to blame. We're a nation built on violence, imperialism, genocide, free labor, etc. It's a long list.
I thought about Erika Kirk, and her innocent children, Kirk's children - who are now without a father. They join the dozens of American children who were raised by their mothers, because their fathers served the country in one way or another. Husbands, fathers, brothers and sons, gone too soon. The idea that it's business as usual, is sad. It's like the saying, if a tree falls and no one is there, does it make a sound... I'm paraphrasing, but if none sheds a tear, publicly, it's misleading.
I think we are sad...and sadly, we are just overwhelmed and would rather say," I'll think about it tomorrow."
The communal art of grieving is lost in much of contemporary culture. It would do well for those who sense its need to do what they can to invite others into the process. Pushing it down the line isn’t as helpful.
This definitely resonates with me, Andrew. The day of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, I had never even heard his name. By that evening, I was grieving. For the following week or so, I stayed up far too late each evening: reading, watching, listening, absorbing, and processing, volumes about this man, his family, his work, his followers, his haters, his legacy, and his mistakes. I needed to sit in the sadness a while too. I needed to experience it, before coming to any sort of clear thought behind the emotions I was feeling, and what perhaps they could mean for my life or the lives of those around me.
Because movements of this level of emotion always mean something, always. The Book of Lamentations 3:26 says, “It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.” It is good and beautiful to wait. It is good and beautiful to be quiet in the sadness and wait. And it is only good and beautiful to be quiet in the sadness and wait - BECAUSE the light will follow. And it’s this “knowing,” that the light will indeed follow, that is hard earned in life. It is only earned by personally enduring sadness and darkness and then experiencing the transformation of dawn. But you can’t rush it, you can’t run from it, and you can’t fake it, which you personified so beautifully in the Dark Night.
The priest who gave the Sunday homily after the recent Catholic School shooting in Minneapolis, Father Zehren, spoke well about this to the congregation. “There is no darkness that God can’t bring light from. There’s no sorrow that God can’t spring joy from. There’s no grieving that Jesus can’t bring comfort to. And there’s no dying that Jesus can’t raise to new life. When we hear that voice of Jesus, it comes to our hearts and a little light starts to dawn. That’s what we wait for now. That’s what we welcome. We welcome the dawn of a new day at Annunciation. We welcome the light of a new day. It’s a light that will scatter every darkness; it’s a light that will never fade. It’s a light not just for us; it’s the light of the world, and it’s the light of Jesus Christ. We watch for that light.”
So we wait, in the sadness and grief over so many miseries in our families and neighborhoods and country and around the world, we wait. But we wait with a heart watching for the light. And, for you, wait also with your feet, those feet that are tap dancing along with the beautiful rhythm of your sensitive heart 🩵 - because you are truly bringing light to the people around you.
Andrew Nemr, hello:
I am just seeing your powerful Notes. I would have definitely dropped this link on the countless posts following the senseless killing of Kirk. People could benefit, emotionally; perhaps even physiologically. Could this tragedy simply be a severe case of one individual denying The First Amendment rights of another human being. Charlie Kirk was silenced. We should be sad based on this alone. Oh..."Good afternoon. I'm hear to speak to you about ..and you may or may not agree.' Then here come the rifles. Are we desensitized? Absolutely. The truth is America is to blame. We're a nation built on violence, imperialism, genocide, free labor, etc. It's a long list.
I thought about Erika Kirk, and her innocent children, Kirk's children - who are now without a father. They join the dozens of American children who were raised by their mothers, because their fathers served the country in one way or another. Husbands, fathers, brothers and sons, gone too soon. The idea that it's business as usual, is sad. It's like the saying, if a tree falls and no one is there, does it make a sound... I'm paraphrasing, but if none sheds a tear, publicly, it's misleading.
I think we are sad...and sadly, we are just overwhelmed and would rather say," I'll think about it tomorrow."
The communal art of grieving is lost in much of contemporary culture. It would do well for those who sense its need to do what they can to invite others into the process. Pushing it down the line isn’t as helpful.
This definitely resonates with me, Andrew. The day of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, I had never even heard his name. By that evening, I was grieving. For the following week or so, I stayed up far too late each evening: reading, watching, listening, absorbing, and processing, volumes about this man, his family, his work, his followers, his haters, his legacy, and his mistakes. I needed to sit in the sadness a while too. I needed to experience it, before coming to any sort of clear thought behind the emotions I was feeling, and what perhaps they could mean for my life or the lives of those around me.
Because movements of this level of emotion always mean something, always. The Book of Lamentations 3:26 says, “It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.” It is good and beautiful to wait. It is good and beautiful to be quiet in the sadness and wait. And it is only good and beautiful to be quiet in the sadness and wait - BECAUSE the light will follow. And it’s this “knowing,” that the light will indeed follow, that is hard earned in life. It is only earned by personally enduring sadness and darkness and then experiencing the transformation of dawn. But you can’t rush it, you can’t run from it, and you can’t fake it, which you personified so beautifully in the Dark Night.
The priest who gave the Sunday homily after the recent Catholic School shooting in Minneapolis, Father Zehren, spoke well about this to the congregation. “There is no darkness that God can’t bring light from. There’s no sorrow that God can’t spring joy from. There’s no grieving that Jesus can’t bring comfort to. And there’s no dying that Jesus can’t raise to new life. When we hear that voice of Jesus, it comes to our hearts and a little light starts to dawn. That’s what we wait for now. That’s what we welcome. We welcome the dawn of a new day at Annunciation. We welcome the light of a new day. It’s a light that will scatter every darkness; it’s a light that will never fade. It’s a light not just for us; it’s the light of the world, and it’s the light of Jesus Christ. We watch for that light.”
So we wait, in the sadness and grief over so many miseries in our families and neighborhoods and country and around the world, we wait. But we wait with a heart watching for the light. And, for you, wait also with your feet, those feet that are tap dancing along with the beautiful rhythm of your sensitive heart 🩵 - because you are truly bringing light to the people around you.
Silence, stillness, and waiting in a world that is loud, always moving, and impatient are truly witnesses to a different kind of life.