How Do We Choose Hope When Evil Frightens Us?

@bethvogt

I’m determined to choose hope even as I struggle to comprehend another senseless act of violence, this time in Boulder, Colorado.

Is there an act of violence that ever makes sense?

My husband Rob and I spent a long weekend in Minnesota, visiting our youngest daughter whose spring break morphed into a volleyball pre-season. Good days. Good conversations. Lots of laughter. Even more hugs.

Hours after we arrived home in Colorado, a friend texted me and said she was praying for our Colorado communities.

I had no clue what she meant.

Then came her words: A shooting in CO. I’m so sorry. I thought you’d have known.

I spent Monday evening scanning for updates on the mass shooting at a King Soopers grocery store in Boulder, CO. Grieving the deaths of 10 people, including one police officer who responded to the threat. Unable to fathom why the suspect would do something so horrible.

Since yesterday, I’ve been in a wrestling match with fear. Determined to not let it get a chokehold on my emotions.

News headlines incite fear by providing too much information about what happened in Boulder. By dredging up the horrific details of similar events in the past.

A mass shooting could happen again – after all, how many times has this already happened in U.S. history?

It could happen to someone I love. To me. At the most unexpected of times. The most unexpected places, like a neighborhood grocery store.

Fear burrows into our minds and hearts. Cripples our ability to live in peace. To live with hope.

How do we live with the reality of evil in this world without being overwhelmed?

Oddly enough, we have to allow ourselves to be stunned by violence just like what happened in Boulder Colorado on Monday, March 22, 2012. We can’t become unfeeling. Uncaring. We can’t reduce tragedy to a mere headline.

We have to grapple with the fear. The grief. The loss.  Choose to believe, again and again, that we are not defined by someone’s reckless, senseless, evil action.

These kinds of determined choices birth hope.

We must choose faith in spite of heartache. In spite of others disappointing us. Judging us. Harming us.

Their atrocious actions do not define us. Our actions, our choices, define us.

If I say I am a woman of faith, then I must cling to my faith in all circumstances, not just the easy ones. Fear is a mighty opponent, but hope, chosen again and again, is mightier.

My hope should never be placed in the actions of others.

My hope is in God, who has not failed me yet, and who will not fail me, come what may.

How Do We Choose Hope When Evil Frightens Us? https://bit.ly/3rgI0lE #hope #faith
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'Hope and fear cannot occupy the same space. Invite one to stay.' Quote by Maya Angelou https://bit.ly/3rgI0lE #hope #fear #BoulderColorado
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