When I saw the headline I almost didn't read the article because I've read it already so many times before.  "Another student goes on a rampage that results in death and destruction before taking his own life."  How many times can we read the same story over and over before we do something about it?  Or are we becoming so jaded to it that we don't even notice when it happens...

We can go after the usual culprits - guns, bullies, video games, athletics, hazing... the list goes on and on.  But these aren't really the problem, they're a symptom.  They point to the lack of direction - the hopelessness - that's pervading our country and our world.  So what's causing the hopelessness?

I think it's a lack of love... what an ironic thing to be talking about the day after Valentine's Day.

We were made for love - to show love and to be loved... that's why we were born into families and communities.  Ideally, this would be a group of people who would demonstrate for us what love is and nurture us into becoming people of love ourselves.  In a perfect world, we would be a people more interested in the welfare of others.

Unfortunately, that picture is becoming increasingly skewed as people become more self-interested and less focused on continuing the important expression of love.  It's about my needs.  Selfish choices are resulting in unwanted children and populations where the only way to retaliate is to follow along and turn the focus inward.  The only way to fight fire is with fire and the only way to be get along with the self-absorbed is to become self-absorbed to the point that you don't notice them anymore.  This isn't an expression of love and it leaves everyone lacking... missing out on the most essential ingredient for real life.

Enter hopelessness.  It's hopelessness that tells us no one is important and it's hopelessness that tells us we have nothing left to live for.  Hopelessness drives us to want to end it all and actually makes it seem merciful to take others with us.  Hopelessness allows us to blame the superficial problems and it's hopelessness that makes us numb to it's own role in the whole affair so we miss it when we want to point the finger.

I look at the tragedy at Northern Illinois University... and at Virginia Tech... and at Red Lake High School... and at Columbine... and my heart breaks.  It breaks for those who lost their lives and for those who lost their loved ones.  It breaks for the communities who have to figure out how to repair both the places where love has died and the places where hopelessness has been allowed to live.  And my heart breaks for those who have become so broken that this would become their legacy.  It's pathetic.

They were created for something so much greater... 

We were created for something so much greater...