How are you?
I’m genuinely asking that question to you today. I’m asking it as if you and I were sitting across from one another right now at a local coffee shop, in the lobby at our church, in the kitchen area at my office, or in the living room of my home as we chatted about all that we’ve seen and processed this week.
Many of the blog posts that appear here are first sent to the subscribers to our email newsletter. And our editorial calendar for today’s newsletter had a different topic scheduled for today. Actually, it had three different topics, one each for the three niches we serve here at The Rescued Letters Collective. We were going to send three different emails: one to our Living Letters community, one to our No Dusty Bibles community, and one to our Called & Equipped community.
But I felt compelled to write this one instead, to everyone in the collective Rescued Letters community. Because I suspect we are all grieving and reacting and spiraling in a myriad of ways.
It’s been a heavy season.
- Iryna Zarutska in Charlotte North Carolina
- Charlie Kirk in Utah Valley University, Utah
- Evergreen High School in Evergreen, Colorado
- Woodville Street in Tampa, Florida
- San Fransisco, California
- Santa Ana, California
- Cleveland, Ohio
- Cleveland, Texas
- Memphis, Tennessee
- Portsmouth, Virginia
- Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman
Some of these acts of violence are flooding your news and social media feeds right now. If you are like me, you aren’t even aware of some of them because their stories haven’t been pushed to you via the manipulative algorithms of modern news technology.
Acts of violence are not new, for our society nor for the ancient societies that came before us. They are a testament to the consequences of sin in a fallen world. They are proof of the truth found in Ephesians 6, that we wrestle with this present darkness, not with flesh and blood. They present evidence that we cannot afford to disregard: there is evil among us, fighting in a spiritual war that we can neither tangibly see nor complacently ignore.
And yet, the onslaught of evil put before us in just the past seven days feels more than what we are capable of bearing. My personal conversations with friends and loved ones this week have wrestled with the firsthand witnessing of image-bearing life lost in real time, the ramifications of images we cannot remove from our mind, the concern and worry for loved ones in potentially vulnerable situations, and the heaviness consuming those who know this plunges deeper than politics.
What do we do with all of this?
I don’t think there is a one-size-fits-all-answer. For me personally, this looks like disconnecting from social media. People are responding online from the peak of their emotion and I prefer to process things quietly, alongside Jesus and close friends and family first. It looks like reading God’s Word out loud, shouting it even, into the empty rooms in my home, into the empty spaces in my heart. It looks like spending time outside, in nature, walking, sitting, watching, listening…reorienting my senses to the Creator and His creation. It looks like talking and praying with friends and loved ones. It looks like intentionally looking strangers in the eye with kindness at the grocery store, at the gas station, in my neighborhood, on my daily prayer walks, and in any public area God takes me to. It looks like telling my loved ones I do dearly love them. It looks like stopping to pray the Lord’s Prayer any time I feel anxiety rising in my spirit, which is often.
Because you have so graciously read this far into this post, may I encourage you to lean in and do what the Lord is compelling you to do. For some of us that will mean drawing inward and clinging to the peace and presence of Jesus to sustain us in these coming days. For some, it will mean connecting with friends, family, and loved ones. For some, it will mean diving deeper into God’s Word for hope, knowledge, and direction. For some, it will mean boldly proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ and the hope we have in Him to any and all who will listen.
And for many of us, I suspect it will mean all of these things. And so today, I cling to these truths and the assurance found in Hebrews 10:23:
God is still in control.
Jesus is still writing our story.
The Holy Spirit is still teaching us how we should move.
Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. – Hebrews 10:23
Lord have mercy. Jesus be near. Holy Spirit breathe on us. Give us the strength to hold unswervingly to our hope in You.
I am rooting for you always. And remembering you when I lift up the Lord’s Prayer, over and over again.
-Heather
