The local news here is Monday’s shooting at a St. Louis high school. A 19-year-old, armed to the hilt, killed a student, a teacher, and wounded others before being killed by police. This note was found in his car. “I don’t have any friends, I don’t have any family. I’ve never had a girlfriend. I’ve never had a social life. I’ve been an isolated loner my entire life. This was the perfect storm for a mass shooter.”
Oh my.
I can only think of love. That young man didn’t know love, or at least, when love was extended to him, he didn’t take love into his being. Knowing that you are loved creates a safe place. Being loved doesn’t mean you understand all that’s happening. It doesn’t mean you won’t have lonely times filled with fear. Those trying times come to us all, but when you know you’re loved, there is a better tomorrow. “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends” (1 Corinthians 13:7-8). Who instilled love into your life?
Jean Kuczka was the teacher killed by the gunman. A 61-year-old health teacher, she had taught at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School since 2008. When the gunman entered her classroom, she put herself between him and her students. “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). Mrs. Kuczka did. Jesus did. Today “He lives to bless me with his love; He lives to plead for me above.” We love because He loves us.
Society today is far more impersonal than decades ago. Tech is impersonal, government is impersonal, big business doesn’t care about you. Who cares about teenagers? Her daughter Abbey said, “She loved making a difference, forming students and the younger generation about health and being healthy, and playing sports and working as a team.” I see no hope in my lifetime of filling the terrible deficit of love in our society, but your acts, my acts of self-less, self-giving love, may make a difference in some young person’s life.