What Do We Do?

I've been "blog silent" for a couple of days and much has happened in our world during that time. Domestic terrorists (meaning, our neighbors) have killed many people, among them a young mother (the great-niece of a dear friend of mine) and her husband. Three children under the age of 5 were orphaned by a man who held hatred above all else. (And that's just the one family I'm most aware of... how many others are there?)

On the other side of the country, another friend was verbally insulted and made to fear for his safety and that of his family. Why? Because he was skipping with his daughter. A stranger felt hatred above all else, and felt it so profoundly that he ruined a perfectly innocent moment between father and child.

These acts of physical and verbal violence have hung heavy over my spirit these past few days.

This morning I was at a breakfast meeting with a room full of people I've never met. The last thing on our minds was hatred. Our interactions were kind and meaningful and sincere. It made me wonder... what makes a perfect stranger so filled with hate that they would act upon someone they don't know? Most of us could never fathom that. And yet, it seems to happen often these days.

I've been thinking a lot about hatred and its roots in fear of one kind or another. I don't know if hatred and fear occupy the same space in the brain, but it seems to me that they go hand in hand. Hatred is born out of fear of something. Fear of people who are different than you... fear of losing something... fear of being treated unfairly... I suppose these are the fears that fuel hatred.

I can try to understand the roots of this raw emotion, but I'm at a loss as to how to change it. People who feel hatred so deeply that they'd assault or kill another person... they aren't the ones who are going to recognize it in themselves and get help.

So what are we supposed to do? Just stand by and let their hate flow over the rest of us, demolishing lives in the process?

I really am at a loss on this. I keep hearing that scripture in my mind, "Perfect love casts out fear." But some people just will not be loved. They will not see the loving kindness of others and allow it to permeate their own hearts and change their fear-filled minds. Some people will just continue to destroy until they themselves are destroyed. How do we live our lives knowing that at any moment another's hatred could pull us under like a rip tide?

I know that the people reading my blog are not the problem. I can't picture any of you being so fearful that you bear hatred in your heart. Certainly none of you would commit the kinds of atrocities we've seen and heard about this past week. So what do we do, those of us who can't fathom behaving that way? We've tried asking politicians to pass laws, yet we really can't agree on what laws would help (and neither can they). We've tried praying through it, yet prayer is not changing the hearts and minds of those who are intent on evil. We've tried talking about it and raising awareness about issues like mental health, yet those messages are not reaching the hearts of those bent on terror. What more is there to do?

We do have to continue living our lives, not be paralyzed with fear. But moving on from these events feels like accepting them as a part of our life and society. I'm not prepared to accept that this is just "life in these United States." Many, many countries live without this type of threat hanging over them. Why can't we?

Broken heart image by Miriam Müller from Pixabay