It was by no accident that I was in Denver last week when the tragedy took place in Aurora. I was there with several youth and two other church leaders for a mission trip, serving and seeking out how God could use us to touch other peoples' lives. It was quite a remarkable week. We saw God doing some pretty awesome things with us and with the people around us. On Friday morning, we woke up to the terrible news. We went on with the day, walking through the streets of downtown Denver doing whatever we could for whomever we encountered. We made some awesome connections that morning. We passed out food, drink, and conversation to 19 people that morning. We made lots of connections with lonely people. We felt blessed.
We started out the week at Columbine High School. We had our first night's devotional near the memorial at the school. And we wound up on Friday Night, gathered outside the Aurora Cinema 16 at a prayer vigil for the shooting victims. Talk about sobering bookends to a week. As I have reflected on that week, and on the events in that theater and our reaction to them, one thing has become pretty evident: we are tired of seeing these things happen. For something like this to happen once is one time too many. For it to happen twice in decade in one city begs the question of us...What is going on? Why does this type of thing keep happening?
One thing as really stuck in all of the media coverage over the past week. The next day, the police of Aurora said with brazen candor: "At this time we are confident he acted alone." This says it all, doesn't it? He was alone. He was isolated. He was an individual, that from all accounts, seems to have been cut-off from his peers. This is the unfortunate formula that seems to pollute individuals who turn out to be capable of acting out against society in such excruciating ways.
He did not just act alone, he was alone. I am in no way exonerating him, or condemning anyone else for what he did, but the truth is that our society is good at isolating people, especially those whom we label as "undesirable," "creepy" or "socially awkward." We have the ability to pretend like such people don't exist, and don't matter much. No one seems to have been completely surprised by this guys' blow-up. Nobody has said "I can't believe that he would do such a thing." Even his own mother insinuated that she thought he was capable of such a thing.
This guy, although he is completely responsible for his actions, is also oppressed. It seems as if he is someone that no one reached out to, or even thought about reaching out to. Maybe he was sick mentally, and beyond being reached, but maybe he wasn't. We will never know. It's important for us not to pretend like we understand what happened, and what exactly his motivation was, and what could have prevented it, but it is also important for us to realize what this shouts to us in regards to our calling as followers of Christ, who invited in the oppressed for dinner, and cast demons out of the town "creep."
Through death, Jesus brought life. Let us hope that out of this tragic loss of life, that lives would be saved and transformed. That is how God works. Some way, some how, we have to look at this and be reminded of our call, our high calling, to reach out to those who live in isolation and oppression on the outskirts of our society. If we don't reach out to them, then who will? They will remain a loner. Are we willing to settle for our brothers and sisters living as loners, when God created us to be in relationship with him and one another out of his perfect love? I know I'm not alone in thinking that we are called to so much more than sitting back and reacting.
Here is a great article. This victim, Pierce, works for the Denver Rescue Mission, whom we were working with in Denver. He uses the words "lost-soul" to describe the gunman...this is one way we describe someone who lives in isolation, alone to wrestle with their own struggles and sin, without support and the love of God being spoken into their life by someone who cares:
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/colorado-shooting-victim-forgives-holmes-142413141.html
