No more hurt

My heart hurts. It hurts because kids are killing kids. It hurts because people die too soon. It hurts because people think if I disagree with them it means I hate them. It hurts because I see so many hurting. Kids killing kids......some of them were mine. Maybe I taught them (or some like them) .....Maybe I fought for them, maybe I loved them, maybe I cried with their moms and grandmas. Why does it have to be like that? Why does Satan get to step in and convince these kids that gangs symbolize brotherhood, sisterhood, and unity? It’s just a trap....yet the longing to be a part of something.....anything....leads so many astray. ...and people die too soon..... not just from gang violence, but from all sorts of things..... How do you explain to a mom who lost her grown son that God really does have some sort of plan in the midst of the most dreadful days of her life. How do you convince her that it’s ok to be upset, mad, sad and confused .......but just not to stay there? Life isn’t easy. Truth isn’t always pretty. Your “truth” might be different from my “truth,” but facts are facts.....Just because we view things differently doesn’t mean one of us is better than the other. It doesn’t mean I wish you ill or harm. It simply means we view things differently. My sin might be different from your sin....but sin is sin. There is no hierarchy. Family is everything.......only sometimes I forget this. Sometimes I get so fixated on how the world hurts that I forget that those closest to me might hurt sometimes too. I forget that I hurt....really, it’s not that I forget......maybe it’s just that sometimes it easier to focus on all the hurt around so I don’t think about my own.... ......ever felt like that? ......like you want to fix everything....but you have no idea where to start? .......like you failed at fixing your own things so you have no business worrying about fixing anything else? The world is full of hurt....so much so that my head nor heart can imagine it all.... ...but the one thing I don’t have to imagine is God’s love.... He’s proven it over and over.... ...when I’ve been mad, sad, and glad....and especially when my heart hurts.... I can’t imagine how His heart hurt to send His Son to die on the cross....to SEE Him BECOME SIN...to see every bad and unimaginable thing we could ever do- all at once put into Jesus’ body....in order to save us from an eternity of hurting hearts. So, when my heart hurts I find comfort in knowing anything I experience or feel is NOTHING compared to what Jesus experienced on the cross...to SAVE me...and to SAVE you..... Wow. Just....wow. Psalm 94:19 When I worried about many things, your assuring words soothed my soul.