By now pretty much everyone in the world knows of the carnage of Virginia Tech. My mind and heart have been drawn to it this week for a few reasons:
1) 33 people died and have stood before the Lord – did they know Him? It increases my heart for evangelism. It’s easy to get ‘comfortable’ in our own little worlds. It has challenged me to be a little more bold in the opportunities the Lord provides – to share a kind word of encouragement, stop to give a hug or express concern and REALLY listen when someone trusts me enough to share their heart.
2) Being a Student Services professional for 8 years, I was struck & brought to tears when I heard one of the first victims was an RA. I supervised RAs. I know the job they do. This RA was just doing his job, and he died in the process. I can only imagine the myriad of details going on in that residence hall – details we don’t think about and the news media doesn’t cover: is the floor closed off as a crime scene, and if so, all those students need to be reassigned to new housing; when the campus was in lockdown, was there a cafeteria in the building or did you have simple needs like eating to attend to; the staff of the residence hall just lost a friend, coworker, and team member – the hall director lost someone he/she was mentoring – on top of their loss they have to figure out how to ‘cover’ the floor (if the residents are permitted/want to stay on it) the rest of the year. And that’s just the details for that residence hall ON TOP OF everything going on around campus. And my short list of details doesn’t do it justice.
All I can do is pray. And I have been. And will continue. While my heart breaks, my heart yearns to share the gospel with those around me. We’re all only one breath away from standing before the Lord.
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