Heart Hurts (If you're easily offended stop here)

September 10, 2025

 Today I watched a man be assassinated.

Disagreeing with someone else's view and opinions should not be a deciding factor for if they are permitted to live. Nor should it determine if you are permitted to live.

Before I get too deep in, let me be clear that this is not being said to open any doors to conversations about weapons and weapon control. This goes so much deeper than anyone's ability or right to possess any kind of weapon.

My heart is grieved at the events that unfolded today. There is a young wife and mother who is facing unimaginable grief as she has to navigate losing her husband. There are two very young children who will only ever know the man their father was through stories retold by others and videos they will watch. There are dozens of other friends and family members who will forever have a piece of their lives missing; and hundreds of families who will need professional help to process what they bore witness to and experienced first hand. Likewise, there is at least one family who now has to try and wrestle with why their loved one chose violence.

This man, 31 years old who made it one of his life's missions to engage in a healthy dialogue with anyone whether they believed differently than he or not, ripped away from this world while he sat defenselessly and was actively engaged in civil dialogue.

I wish that such a heinous atrocity was a scarcity. A genuine shock. A once in a lifetime type of historical event. Unfortunately it is a nearly daily occurrence throughout our world. Gone is the naivete that the world is open to persons sharing differing opinions and still being able to live as civilized beings it seems.

Perhaps I am still just naive enough to believe that across this world the vast majority of people still are open to understanding they don't know or understand it all. People who are still willing to listen to the views and opinions of persons who may line up along a different side of an aisle. Wouldn't it be grand to have the ability to snap my fingers and have this kind of world exist instead of the one where any little thing can quickly be twisted into something divisive.

I am equally as grateful for the people in my life who agree with me as I am the one who do not. Both types provide opportunities for growth, learning and stretching.

May we all strive to learn that violence is not the solution and that we each have a responsibility to carry ourselves in a manner that brings peace instead of conflict, respect instead of contempt, and light instead of darkness.

My hope and prayer is that somehow this unfortunate event can become a catalyst for change harkening us back to civil discourse. God grant us wisdom no matter where our beliefs lie.

More than ever before: Kyrie Eleison

*Added for the social media crowd:

If you find yourself celebrating someone being publicly assassinated simply because you think he deserved it, or because he didn't line up with your beliefs and views, then you are part of the problem with this world. We can agree to disagree and still live in relative harmony contrary to what the rhetoric is trying to force us all to believe. How about we let love really win?