From Someone Who Lived There
As I write this, I am somewhat
numb. Anyone who has followed my ministry for a while knows that until
2018 my family and I lived in Uvalde, Texas.
When I moved to
Uvalde, I was fresh out of college. My whole life was in front of me
and I was ablaze with the fire of youthful zeal and enthusiasm. I had
answered the call of God to preach just a few years prior to attending
college, and had served as a youth minister at a couple of churches in
central and southwest Texas during and prior to college, then God called
me to minister to the youth of Uvalde full time. We held youth
meetings and Bible Studies there, and in the surrounding area, as well
as several area-wide evangelistic meetings, from 1986 until 2018, when
the LORD called us up to Michigan to start a church.
Shortly
after I moved to Uvalde, my wife and I were married, and began our life
together in Uvalde. Our children were all born in Uvalde, four of whom
were born in the very hospital you have seen on the news the past 24
hours. I made pastoral visits to many people in that hospital.
I
know the school too. As a young man just starting out and newly
married, I substituted at Robb Elementary, and other Uvalde schools.
As
I watched the news reports, I recognized familiar places and familiar
faces and I have to say it is all sort of surreal. Like it’s a bad
dream.
Uvalde was our home. It is where our older children grew
up. It is where I ministered to many people, both in person and as a
regular contributor to The Pastor’s Column in the Uvalde Leader-News.
It is where we were September 11, 2001. I offered up the first public
prayer that day at the town square, where many people had gathered
together to support one another in our shock, and to pray. (Some of our
townspeople were in New York City that day, and one of the youth who
attended our youth meetings had grown up and was at the Pentagon on
business that day. People often gathered together at the town square in
times of joy or sorrow.) It is where we lived when our precious
daughter Sarah died in my arms at the tender age of eight years old, and
I will never forget the outpouring of love, support and sympathy that
the people of Uvalde showered upon us.
Uvalde is a place that I
love and it is still the home of many of the people I love, and yet in
the last 24 hours Uvalde has become synonymous with terror and
indescribable grief. This makes me both very sad and angry.
So this will not be your average commentary regarding Uvalde.
I
have heard many people comment on what happened yesterday, but have had
to stop following it. I have found that I am very sensitive to people
talking about what happened in Uvalde. Everyone seems to have an
opinion about what happened. I have heard politicians, commentators and
celebrities all talk about it as though they know what they are talking
about, but they are all removed from it to a large degree, whether they
realize it or not. It is not their home. But it was our home. It is a
part of who we are. I can’t really explain how I am feeling, but it is
real. One of our daughters is very sensitive about it as well, and has
gone on a “facebook fast” because it seemed like it was the only thing
people were chatting about, and it was really getting to her.
So, from a Uvaldean, let me give you my take.
Over
the last few years, I have heard from several of my friends who still
live in Uvalde that there is a lot more crime there than there was a few
years ago. You may not be aware of it, but before this tragedy
happened, Uvalde had already been featured on a couple of nationwide
evening news programs over the past year and a half because of the high
crime rate, and a lot of it has to do with the open borders policy.
Uvalde is one of the first stops for illegals, and it is now an
epidemic. Add to this the lockdowns over the past couple of years and
the lack of freedom, compassion and common courtesy that has been so
overwhelming to so many. It all leads to frustration and anger, and it
always will. People are meant to be free, and the more people feel like
caged animals who have no control over their lives whatsoever, the more
this kind of thing is going to happen. I am in no way attempting to
justify what happened, but I do know how people are, and what I write is
true.
I do not want to hear any more political speeches
regarding this tragedy. I do not want to hear people who have never
been to Uvalde try to describe Uvalde. People have their opinions, but
this preacher is of the opinion that all of our national woes go back to
the same root problem: we have turned away from God as a people, and it
is killing us. And that is not a Uvalde problem, that is a worldwide
problem.
So let us turn to the Word of God, which is the source
of life and light for us all, and let us see what the giver of life says
is the answer to all our national woes.
“If my people, which are
called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face,
and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will
forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14
That
is our only hope. We can never set things aright. We have messed this
old world up beyond our ability to set things aright. We cannot make
America great again without God’s guidance and help, and we need to stop
telling ourselves that we can. We need to get on our knees in humble
repentance and go to the One who can, and we need to do it now.
May God help us so to do.
Written Wednesday, May 25, 2022
Very well said.
ReplyDeleteThank you Melissa. God bless.
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