4% of the town population was obliterated. Eight members of a single family were killed. The gunman’s grandmother-in-law could not avoid the destruction. Even the pastor’s daughter died yesterday. It was denounced as an act of evil. It was evil.
I don’t know much about the shooter. No one does yet. It’s been barely 24 hours since the attack, since the killer himself was silenced forever. He was ex-military, discharged for bad conduct after a domestic violence case. Was he attacking humans yesterday or, in his mind, was he battling some demon? Were there some claws in his brain from his military past that wouldn’t release him? I don’t know. Regardless, the end result was twenty-six innocent lives lost.
At times like this, it feels as though nothing is sacred. The shooter attacked a church. A church. However, the lives in Sutherland Springs were no more valuable than those lost in Las Vegas or in Orlando or in Newtown or in…or in…
My fiancee is from another country. We’re working through the visa process. We talked through and prayed through this event yesterday. It felt a little hollow giving the same explanation I did after trying to quell any of her fears from the Las Vegas shootings. “It’s far away. It couldn’t happen here.” I bet words like that were barely a month removed from the lips of the dead when they had once heard about the Las Vegas massacre.
So where do we go from here? Life is so fragile. Mourn with those who mourn. Right now, any other counsel just feels insufficient.
a great, real place 
Well said!
Thanks Steve. Such a sad event.