When Murder Strikes Home
Last Sunday morning a well known local woman was killed in her home not far from where I live. A few hours later her 20-year old son was arrested. Later that day two other 20-year olds and a 17-year old were also arrested. More information kept coming out over the next couple of days. It appears to have been cold-blooded, allegedly premeditated, for money. The individual details are all unimportant to what has been on my mind most of the time. I personally didn't know anyone involved.

But,you see, none of these young men gave any kind of warning signals. Most of what has been said about them all has been positive. The high school pictures show fairly clean-cut, normal-looking teenagers. But something happened. Somewhere in the last two years or so a seismic shift must have happened. We may never know what or why, but whatever happened or changed or snapped was enough to bring death and grief to a whole community.

The other evening I was sitting in one of my favorite coffee shops. It was church youth group night with lots of teenagers doing homework and visiting and having a good time. I looked around the room and wondered about these particular teens in light of what had happened just a few miles down the road. Someday would one of them be the subject of surprise and fear and investigations? Would friends sit in shock and shake their heads wondering what went wrong?

As a drug and alcohol counselor with teenagers in public schools I have sat across from many a young person and been responsible for making some kind of assessment, usually about the students drug use. But every time a school shooting occurs or something like the recent murder here, I wonder if I would have seen the signs that weren't there. I wonder if some student I have seen will end up like this and all of us will be wondering how or why or what could have happened.

I come face to face with the extremely random and unscientific aspect of the work I do. We hope and pray that we will catch the signs that are needed to be seen. We hope and pray that we will have the insight and ability and skill to prevent acts like this.

Yet I also know that fallible human beings are ultimately unpredictable. As much as we want it to be different it never will be. The cracks in our ability to ultimately figure out the depths of human pain and sin and uncertainty are wide. That is scary and humbling.

And puts me back on my knees to remind me that my power and skill and direction can only come from God. For after all, as one of my Seminary professors said years and years ago, the sinfulness of humanity is the only provable theological doctrine.

May the grace of God always be with us!