By now I would imagine most of the world has heard about the shootings at Fort Hood in Texas that occurred yesterday. The details will come out over the next weeks and months and there is much speculation, of course, about what triggered these shootings by Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan. The taking of lives is never a pretty thing or something that is easy to embrace. I would imagine those involved are going to be asking “why” for a long time. It is sad, heart breaking, actually and I found myself, like many others, being drawn to the coverage until I finally could not take any more and had to turn it off. When things like this happen it really makes us realize that each day is indeed a gift from God. These victims were on base that day with no idea whatsoever that their lives were going to either be taken in violence or that they were going to be injured or at the very least changed forever from the events of the day.

Having lived on a military base for 5 years early on in our marriage I had to reflect back on that time and how safe I felt there. You had your little stickers on your car that allowed you access to the main base and there were always gates and guards that checked you through. When that trust and security has been broken it is difficult to understand how one of the few places where people most likely felt safest can continue to offer that level of comfort. I must say that I never have felt unsafe in any place that we lived but probably I felt the safest when we did live in military housing. It is a community and everyone looked out for one another.

So I guess today my thoughts and prayers are with all involved in this horrific event. My prayers go out also to the Major and his family—there seems to be no explanation but my prayer is that somehow something positive comes out of this. That is a stretch to imagine at this point. We serve an awesome God. So today I am going to focus on that. It is about all I can do at this point.