Powerless

Recently I've succumbed to the Powers of the almighty facebook. Just another facet in connectivity to all the spread out friends and family we all have these days.

Though, in the wake of this VT massacre I had to stop and wonder if it was really such a great thing.

What got me started was seeing a couple of Facebook Groups spring up today. "God be with V Tech", "Praying for VT", "VT Support" Etc, etc.

Is that really the best we can do?

I understand completely why we all feel the need to join these groups. We are so well informed now that most of us probably heard of the shootings as they were happening, if not immediately thereafter. People all over the world have information on it by today, and the details are spreading, spreading... Which isn't necessarily a bad thing though. But we have all of this information it seems and no real way to act on it.

Our human condition more or less dictates a sense of empathy for all of the people who are left behind in a tragedy like this, in some ways I would say that it hits us even harder than something more catastrophic like Katrina or something because the numbers are LOWER. There is only so much we can realistically process and pass emotion on. Honestly we probably would feel better if there were say, 4000 students shot. Because we wouldn't be able to really feel that. It would be tragic, but I think we can all really feel the gritty emotion of 32 people being killed. Much more than that and it's just a world wide statistic for most of us.

I wonder about the real use of e-groups because they are on the same par with all the other Joke groups that spring up on Facebook and its ilk. So, in that way first, it seems to cheapen the gesture. Additionally (and maybe this is just me being a cynic), if I knew someone in those shootings, I would feel no better that some prom queen in Duluth was showing her support of my pain. I mean really. How many times could you possibly read that someone thought it was tragic, and they were in their engineering building, and they are thinking about me in my hour of need... The monotony of it all would just make me feel like no one -really- understood anything about the whole thing and it was just -another- bandwangon that people were jumping on to make themselves feel better.

But that's true isn't it? We do it to make ourselves feel better about an awful situation. We all have this human need to DO something, but we are removed physically or emotionally from the situation so our options are limited. And then here is this little e-group where we can commiserate and share and make ourselves feel like the world isn't full of mad people and get on with our life. Be cause we feel powerless when things like this happen. We want to ask why and rail at the sky and get together with like minded people and make it all go away.

So, maybe they do serve their purpose in their own way, but as an emotional experience for everyone else, and not really for the people who are actually connected to the experience.

As for the prayer. I'm just not sure of it. I mean, here I am even as a Church Person, and yeah, we take prayer requests at the church and the community of faith shares with one another the things that we have on our hearts and minds and the things we take to God.
But for us to broadcast the fact that we are praying for these people outside of our own community. I don't know. Again, to me it wouldn't really mean as much as knowing people in my own church were praying for me, the people who were really connected to me and some frat-man in Hawaii.
I guess on that there is a point where we become like the Pharisee, who walk up to the center of the church and pray loudly for everyone else to hear. If you want to pray, pray, the One that matters hears you, you don't have to join a group online to state that you are praying over people for a tragedy. Unless I suppose you are going to use the group to actually get together and actually pray for these people.

Tragedy, Tragedy everywhere, and not enough to drink...

The way it is...

So this is the way Christ works....

Yesterday there were these few people.... Let's call them biddies. Who were on my case for basically nothing. and i mean that seriously, I know that I can be a slacker sometimes and forget thigns and leave stuff around. But, I made a real effort the day before to have everything squared away. And you know how crappy that feels when you make the effrot to do something and you still get yelled at for it? Yeah, well, that's what happened.
So all yesterday I was in a royal FIT, and just cursing at everything and grumbly mubly etc.... And this morning wasn't MUCH better, but I set some of it aside, and read some things in Acts, and felt lots better. And I had to cause I was helping out with Three Services today (Good Friday).

And at the end of the service I helped serve communion. And I served it to the biddies.

That's how Christ works.

It's like, GARRRRRR. And then you serve them the symbol of the ultimate love and forgiveness on this earth, and they look you in the eye, and you say, "The Body of the one who loves us, broken for you," and they say, "Amen." And then you feel like an enormous jerk.

Stupid anger. Stupid forgiveness making people feel better and stuff...

Sometimes we all liek our anger don't we? It's like this warm horrible blanket that is all around us. Which is too bad really. Cuase it's prickley on the outside. Sigh.

God is Good, all the Time.