Jan's Jots and Thoughts . . .

The events of Thursday night have shifted American thought this weekend . . .  I have to admit that I returned to newscasts several times a day to see if they have discovered the "WHY" of the whole disaster.   As I watched a part of the memorial service last night -- my thoughts were -- "on Thursday afternoon these families and friends had no idea they would be at that place on Sunday night".

The fact that this man worked in the research center, a floor above Marshall -- kept us riveted on our TV  for several hours to make certain that the lab hadn't been laced with explosives -- The wounded were on Katie's floor at one of the area hospitals.

Like everyone else, so many thoughts have raced through my brain . . . one thought keeps recurring -- a brilliant young man who lost his way.  I've heard him called evil, abherrant to society -- how did his mind become so fixed in the virtual world that he lost feeling for humankind?  When did he abandon those principles and values he obtained in his "church-going family"?

I think of his parents, who on Friday morning awoke to the worst nightmare of their lives -- for them their world ceased.  The world they knew came crashing down -- the son they knew and loved -- became the most reviled in the nation.

You read in the Bible about the Father, who brought his son to Jesus because he was possessed by a demon.
Is this what happened?   Did this young man become overcome by the devil?  Was he mentally ill?

I think of that father who is waiting to see his son brought before the court this morning.  This is the same son whom he took to Science Camps -- who graduated with honors and received an NIH Federal Grant to do his research. 

There is so much about GUN CONTROL in the news -- I'm not a proponent of owning guns and I believe that because it's become such an issue -- everyone WANTS one now -- ONE thing we do know -- more and more guns are falling into the hands of  the deranged, the angry and the evil -- I'm not sure gun control would do much about that.

As an educator -- I see students all the time who have lost their way and are crying out for meaning to their lives.  I see the lonely who would just like to have a meaningful friendship or know that someone really cared for them.

What do we do with the lost boys and girls whose lives are so entwined with the virtual, the material,  and the media that they have no concept of the real world or the Spirit man --the soul-- inside them?.  Those who don't know that  the REAL WORLD is not on this earth but in  Heaven. and that the REAL WORLD is about love and compassion and caring for each other.

Our kids, Marshall and Katie, brushed shoulders with violence of the worst order.  It was a horrific day.
They painfully came through it -- and then Jim and Jan were there to help on Saturday.

So many say at times like this -- "Where was God?"  --- "What does Jesus feel?"

I think the only answer to that is found in the verse, JESUS WEPT.    John 11:35


                        wept for those who lost
                  wept for those injured   and . . .
                 wept for the depravity of this young man who had lost his way and in so doing has devastated the lives of total strangers, his family, his friends,  and the nation.