When "Just As I Am" Isn't Enough
Ah! happy those whose hearts can break/And peace and pardon win!/How else but through a broken heart/May Lord Christ enter in? - Oscar Wilde This morning I scrolled through the list of students and teachers who were gunned down two days ago at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida. Seventeen more lives to add to the over 138 students, teachers and staff who have been killed in 239 school shootings since the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy in 2012. I believe that there's a time for inspirational words, and we need to speak them. But there's also a time for transformative action. You see, sending our "thoughts and "prayers" can be generative and life-giving, but I think most of us settle for "thoughts and prayers" because the transformation that would lead us to action might cost us too much. It seems to me that those of us who claim to be Christians spend a lot of energy talking about how we want the world t...