Skip to main content

20 reasons to remember

It is in times of tragedy that we often find ourselves questioning humanity. We begin to question the morals of the sickened society we live in, and we find ourselves lost as to how to bandage up the gaping wounds the tragedy's leave within our hearts. 

After every evil act that is taken out in American soil I always find myself more shocked than the last time. I'm not saying one tragedy is greater than another, it just seems that each one becomes more twisted. It make my spine crawl thinking about those who do harm to others; but I won't give any recognition of the manic coward behind the weapons. The name of evil is not important; rather, it was those who faced evil without fear that should be remembered. 

After the unspeakable trauma Newtown, CT just witnessed I think that we should take a minute and ask ourselves, "how can we help those in need?" Especially in the spirit of christmas, we, as a society, need to figure our a way to still spread smiles across each one of those families this season. I'm thinking of writing letters, reminding them that each one of them is in our prayers and that their kids, or siblings, or mom's, or friends will never be forgotten. I wish I could hug each child that made it home that day, I wish I could hug each family's child who didn't. But physically that is impossible, so for my part, all the way here in Iowa- I will keep the thoughts of those innocent children and adults who put the lives of their children ahead of their own. In honor of each of them I will hold my loved ones closer and tighter this holiday season. May God extend his own heart and warm hands to those who need guidance and support in these following weeks. Rest in peace beautiful angels.

Twas' 11 days before Christmas, around 9:38
When 20 beautiful children stormed through heaven's gate.

Their smiles were contagious, their laughter filled the air.

They could hardly believe all the beauty they saw there.

They were filled with such joy, they didn't know what to say.

They remembered nothing of what had happened earlier that day.

"Where are we?" asked a little girl, as quiet as a mouse.

"This is heaven." declared a small boy. "we're spending Christmas at God's house."

When what to their wondering eyes did appear,

But Jesus, their savior, the children gathered near.

He looked at them and smiled, and they smiled just the same.

Then He opened His arms and He called them by name.

And in that moment was joy, that only heaven can bring

Those children all flew into the arms of their King

And as they lingered in the warmth of His embrace,

One small girl turned and looked at Jesus' face.

And as if He could read all the questions she had

He gently whispered to her, "I'll take care of mom and dad."

Then He looked down on earth, the world far below

He saw all of the hurt, the sorrow, and woe

Then He closed His eyes and He outstretched His hand,

"Let My power and presence re-enter this land!"

"May this country be delivered from the hands of fools"

"I'm taking back my nation. I'm taking back my schools!"

Then He and the children stood up without a sound.

"Come now my children, let me show you around."

Excitement filled the space, some skipped and some ran.

All displaying enthusiasm that only a small child can.

And I heard Him proclaim as He walked out of sight,

"In the midst of this darkness, I AM STILL THE LIGHT."

-author unknown

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Olympic Rings and Emotional Things: What is it about the Olympics that make us ugly cry over sports and athletes we've never heard of?

I'm sitting here on a Wednesday afternoon where, from my couch,  I am transfixed by the multicast view of the Olympics. A quadrant of screens take up the TV where a medal ceremony, men's basketball, skateboarding and a women's soccer game are all happening at the same time. Now, I've always been someone with a love of sports - and it wouldn't be out of the ordinary for me to watch multiple events at the same time, or maybe even grab a stealth peak of the ESPN app to check the score while at a wedding...but to have a quad screen up with multiple sports - even for me, that seems excessive. It got me thinking, what is it about the Olympics that continually captures my attention so fully I can not simply fathom picking ONE of these events to watch? The simple and most obvious answer is that it's fun to watch the world's best athletes compete against each other. You get the super teams, the living legends, the hometown heroes, the underdogs, the record holders - ...

Amster...dam(n), that was fun.

I have recently found myself double checking my memories- making sure things really happened, that I actually did the things I think I did, and saw the things I swear I saw, because with all this adventure going on in my life nothing seems real any more; like it's one big dream that I don't want to wake up from. It's a good thing I always carry my Nikon around with me to back up my illusive memories- for proof that my life is actually as exciting as my thoughts tend to illustrate. For the past two days, I found myself in Amsterdam . The best part is, I was able to explore the fascinating place with my friends who flew in from Rome, Florence and London. It was such a glorious feeling to have Katie in my arms, to chow down with Lindsay and Maria, and to do stupid things with Mallory and Heidi- all while being in a foreign (seriously, so foreign) land. Before I landed in the city of canals, I knew very little about it. I suppose research would have been a standard idea, bu...

Lights will guide you home, and ignite your bones.

I want to give a fair warning that this isn't my usual content. I'm very much a spreader of joy and good news and happiness- but I am also a human. And as it turns out, Maroon5 was right all along: it's not always rainbows and butterflies. So my friends, I share with you something incredibly personal, and honest. Please read on with the knowledge that my intent is not to be negative, or sad, or search for attention. Rather my intent is to write honestly and sincerely about my quest to turn my light back on. There are times in everyone's life where it feels as though the light is fading, and as if the darkness all around us encroaches with unstoppable force. I know I'm not alone in this feeling, but for me, accepting this is extremely hard to admit. Talking about (or writing about it) is even harder for me to do because I truly thought that if I convinced myself enough, there would be no bad days. But recently I've come to the conclusion that you don't know...