Deadly Shootings
At least 13 people are dead and several more injured after a pair of shootings this week. Ten people were killed—three in a home and seven at a nearby school—after an 18-year-old shooter attacked in Tumbler Ridge, a small community in British Columbia, Canada. Meanwhile, three people were killed and at least three more critically injured after a 56-year-old shooter opened fire in a crowded hockey rink in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. The attacks are unrelated but both shooters are biological males who identify and live as females, and who authorities say have a history of mental struggles.
Analysis and eternal perspective: First, we pause to mourn with those who are mourning (Rom. 12:15). The grief from these events is enormous. God, we pray your presence and your comfort would pour over these families as only it can. You are the only way forward for those in the midst of such grief. You love each of those involved, and you desire to bind up their wounds.
Next, it is so incredibly heartbreaking to witness the brokenness of individuals and society lead to horrible actions like these two shootings. To be clear, there are many forms of brokenness that lead to violence in our world, and a number of them have been on display in recent days. But the brokenness that stems from a fractured identity is particularly grievous. Both of these shooters were intentionally formed in their mother’s womb and known by God from before their first breath (Ps. 139:13, Jer. 1:5). Both were called by name—a proof of identity—by a loving God (Is. 43:1).
Even so, the forces at work in this world were able to get between God’s stated love and purpose for these individuals and their surrender to it. The results are catastrophic in human terms.
What do we do with all these layers? According to scripture, we love deeply (1 Pet. 4:8), we speak identity over each other (Eph. 2:10, Jn. 1:12, Gen. 1:27), and we continually renew our minds in God (Rom. 12:2).
Brokenness is a reality of life on Earth. But we do not have to acquiesce to it. Our God sent His son to the cross to make a way of healing and restoration. It is the only way for a brokenness like that on display in these stories to be made whole again. A loving God created each of us with intentional design, and He did so for the specific purpose of bringing glory to His name (Is. 43:21). It is a glorious truth that lends purpose and meaning to each of us. Let us resolve as The Equipped family to offer this wondrous truth anew into the brokenness around us.
The preceding article originally appeared in Thann’s “The Equipped” Weekly Newsletter. For more information on Thann’s weekly email, click here.