“What can you do today to make a change to stop mass shootings?” -K. Cheney
Wednesday evening, as Brett and I met with our team of youth group volunteers, we were informed that 17 people had been shot and killed that afternoon at a Florida High School. We chatted about it quickly, prayed and headed out to greet our teens for Wednesday night church. As the night wore on, I was continually grieved to think about how close to home this is. Our students span over six different public high schools, and multiple homeschool tutorials. Any one of them could have had this horrific shooting happen at their school that day. Thankfully, they didn’t. But what can I do about it? My aunt in Colorado posted the above question to Facebook with rules about responses needing to be respectful, specific, and personally owned. Within our team, we call this being “Solution minded, not issue focused”. It inspired me to share some thoughts I have been processing about the topic of gun violence and school/mass shootings.
I grew up hunting my whole life. My dad taught me gun safety from as early as I could hold a gun up. I was taught to respect the weapon and the animal life we took with it for our food. I am in no way anti-gun, nor am I afraid of the guns themselves. I don’t actually think guns are the problem AND I believe we should have more wisdom poured into our laws for gun ownership. Personally, I believe hurting people are the problem. We have a saying at our church that our little family lives by, “Hurt people hurt people. Healed people heal people.” You’ll frequently hear us asking in our home, “Are you hurting or healing people right now? What does that say about what’s happening in your heart? What are you needing right now?” My kids will ask each other, Brett and myself this, too. We have committed to checking in with our hearts and others, and doing everything in our power to help foster a safe environment to work through our heart hurts and bring healing to pain.
Personally, I believe the problem we actually have at hand is that we have too many hurting people walking around lonely, tormented, fearful, disillusioned, and filled with fantasies of revenge because they have no safe place to face their pain and are isolated from healthy community that brings love and healing. We all face hard moments in life. Everyone has been embarrassed, bullied, experienced loss or hardship. Death and sickness are no respecter of persons. We all experience these painful moments of life. But the difference is do we have people and healthy community around us to help process it? Are we given space to grieve loss, with love to help hold us? Do you have someone there to validate your pain from embarrassment or loneliness at a new school, job, etc.? Or are you left alone to let fear build up, pain harden your heart, and bitterness to take over?
Are you a hurt person who is going around hurting people? Or are you a healed person, spreading love and fostering healing to those in your community? The truth is, you are doing a mass shooting of something to the people around you already, but is it a pouring out of love, forgiveness, kindness, and blessing OR are you spewing hate, condemnation, accusation, and making everyone around you walk on eggshells? Check your facebook posts, consider your most frequent conversations. Are they building others up and instilling confident love, or spraying others with slime of gossip and pointing the finger? None of us get this right all the time, but even when you do catch yourself making a mistake, are you humble enough to apologize and seek forgiveness?
Brett and I have dedicated our lives to Christ. In doing so, He asked us to spend this season of life loving our teenagers. We spend our waking hours praying for our teens and their families, planning safe and fun events where they can come enjoy life and feel safe enough to share their burdens. We create sermons and teachings about healthy community and call our teenagers, team, and ourselves to a higher standard of loving others well, even at the cost of our own comfort. We teach about healthy grief and make space in small groups for our teens and team to share their burdens with one another and allowing them to be exactly where they are in their process. We do NOT always get it right nor are we perfect at any of this. But our dream and goal is to point people to the love of their Savior and have a lot of fun doing it. I cannot tell you how many times teens have told me that they were struggling with thoughts of self harm, suicide, etc, but then when they came to youth and realized that someone cared about them, they realized they never actually wanted any of those things. They simply needed an outlet for the pain and didn’t see any other options in the moment.
So what can you do? It doesn’t need to be a huge grandiose gesture of political change, or even something public. Maybe start with yourself. Are you healthy, considering your mind, body and spirit? What’s one thing you could do today to be kind to your own heart? Then move on to your family. Do they feel safe to share with you? Maybe ask them how they experience you and what they need from you. Be safe enough for them to share and create a policy in your home of choosing to be healed people who heal people with love (this is a process by the way, not a destination or something we master). Finally, how can you get involved in your own community? How can you be someone for somebody? Each one of us has our own unique calling and purpose. Yours does not need to look like mine, nor mine yours. Ask God, “Who is my people group?” You may realize you already knew or maybe, like me, He will surprise you completely.
I never dreamed once that I would be a Youth Pastor. However, one of my greatest discoveries this year has been that I never loved myself as a teenager. Through this position, I am coming to the truth that teenagers are INCREDIBLE! Teen years are meant to be full of joy and adventure. As teens, we should be delighted in by our parents and the world. I now look back at teenage Shailey and have a joy and love for the hurting girl that had no clue how wonderful she is/was. As I have come to a place of healing for my own teenage self, I get to bring healing to my teenagers as well. It is a honor and joy. If you have never worked with children or teenagers, pray about getting involved. Sowing health, truth, and love into the youth of today will create a healthier and more loving future for all of us. So what can you do today to make a change to stop mass shootings?
shailey ratliff 