Quiet, please

I have been profoundly affected by gun violence.  On a personal, immediate, forever level have I been changed.  Warped.  But my life wasn’t altered in a hail of bullets.  It took only one.  Several followed, but that first was all it took.  And I have never been the same.

So I feel that makes me uniquely qualified to comment on all the gun control/gun rights arguments that are circulating this week.  Here is my profound statement:

SHUT THE *-------* UP!!!!!!!

JUST. SHUT. UP!

Zip yer pie hole!  Stuff it!  Come here and let me smack ya!  Whatever euphemism you’d prefer to insert here, DO SO!

Are you crazy???  Now is NOT the time to push your politics, no matter what they are!  These families, this community, we as a nation are in mourning!  They haven’t even buried everyone, yet, for Pete's sake! 

It is hard enough for these families to go get a gallon of milk and the store screams, “It’s the MOST wonderful time of the year…” at them and it grates against their very being.  And then they have every single show, Facebook feed, tweet and radio commentary using their lost family member to push that minute’s agenda.

It is time to be quiet!  It is the time to hold each other and learn to breathe, again.  Breathe – not inhale in order to out-shout the next person.  Take a chill pill, take the high road, take a timeout; do whatever it is you need to do in order to STOP TALKING!!! 

Turn off the media, turn off your Facebook, turn off the phone.  You’re not ever, ever going to control “the other side” or that post-happy person.  Nope.  You can only control what you do.  You don’t have to play defense.  You don’t have to play at all.

Don’t let either side use you as a mouthpiece to shout!  Would you like to be riding in the back of the limo on the way to the cemetery and see the streets lined with people shaking placards at you declaring “FOR” this and “STOP” that?  No.  But isn’t that what is happening, in a sense?

Be still.  Stop wanting to know the intimate details and every late-breaking bit.  They only report it because they think you want to know.  Does it really enhance your life or change any of the facts or save one single soul because you’ve pried hard enough into the case?  It doesn’t.  And ultimately it hurts those families trying desperately to bind their wounds.

So stop.  Please!  Give relief to your spirit.  Come back to Advent.  Prepare yourself for Christ at Christmas.  Leave the screamers to themselves.  Let the story go still so we can lay these children and their teachers to rest with respect and honor.

Praise God.

~~~~~
Pondering Points
Ecclesiastes 3:1- 5
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:
 a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot,
 a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones together,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak,
 a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.

Proverbs 25:20

Like vinegar on a wound is one who sings songs to a heavy heart.  Like a moth in clothing or a worm in wood, sorrow gnaws at the human heart.

Psalm 46:10

“Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”

Psalm 23:1-4

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.  He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.  He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.  Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

1 Corinthians 13:1

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

Matthew 5:4

[Jesus said,] “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”

Luke 2:16-18

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger.  When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.