Can We Just Stop For a Moment? | The Mister Brown Show
On this episode of the Mister Brown Show I want to ask a simple question, “Can we just take a moment?” Between reflecting on Thanksgiving and the sad news alert today about the shooting in Michigan, I just want to take a moment. Life is too short. Today I want to take a moment to reflect, to pause, to grieve, and to be grateful.
Another School Shooting?
I was having a conversation with someone today when I got the news alert on my phone that there was a school shooting at Oxford High School in Michigan. My heart dropped. My first thought was “Wow. Not again. Okay, take a deep breath.” I wanted to take a moment to grieve the loss of life. At the time of this podcast recording, 3 people died and 8 people were injured. Initially, I didn’t want to read about it. I didn’t want to deal with it. It’s embedded in our culture to move on and ignore the hard stuff. However, sometimes we move on too quickly because we don’t want to deal with the pain or heartache. But, we need to take a moment to grieve the loss of life. Teenagers died today. That is a hard thing. This shooting really hit hard for me as I just spent a week with students in Austin, MN. I can’t imagine being at Oxford, seeing people running for their lives, the chaos, and fear.
My next thought was “This is going to be politicized!” One group will immediately start blaming guns and talking about gun control. Another group will say that guns are not the problem and that it would have happened regardless of guns. People will start pointing fingers and blame the teachers, the school, the parents. I was watching news reports and one of the school administrators was being interviewed. The interviewer asked, “Do you want to talk about why you don’t have metal detectors?” The guy said “No. I don’t want to talk about that.” The interviewer was taken back and she didn’t know what to say. Literally less than an hour ago 3 students died in the school that this man works for. They lost 3 students, had 8 receive injuries, and the media immediately wants to start politicizing it?
Can we just take a moment to grieve the loss of life? This is a sad moment. I am intentionally taking a moment to grieve the loss of these teenagers’ lives. I am taking a moment to think about those who were present who will deal with trauma from this. I am taking a moment to think about the kid who did this and why? What is the media going to say when they find out the skin color of the student who did this? Why do they have to do that? Guns don’t kill people, people do. Hurting people will hurt people. People are already politicizing this. Can we just take a minute?
The governor said that no student should go to school in fear. The truth is that kids go to school in fear every single day. Not just because of gun violence, but because of how we treat people! Bullying, social media, judging, and overall disrespect for others cause kids to go to school in fear every day. It is not just gun violence. Video games, music, social media, news cycle, etc.. are destroying our culture and our view of others. I don’t know if a 15-year-old has the ability to process all of the things we are throwing at them. In a sense, we have allowed our culture to push all of these things on them. Is it possibly too much, too soon in their life? I am not trying to point the finger either, but we need to step back and ask ourselves what we are allowing to influence our kids and our culture. Can we take a moment to consider the breakdown of our society? I simply want to start asking questions.
Can we take a minute to grieve and process our pain from the shooting at Oxford High School that left 3 people dead and 8 injured? This tragedy was caused by a human being who made an incredibly sad choice. Life is too short, can we just take a minute to grieve the loss of these teenagers' lives?
Forsaken [Verb: Abandoned or Deserted]
There is a poster on the wall in my studio that says:
“For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.” [Jeremiah 2:13]
For those of you who don’t know, I also have a ministry called Proclaim Ministries where our goal is to help people Connect Faith & Life. You can learn more about it at: https://proclaimministries.com/.
We as a people have forsaken God. We have turned our back on God and said “We will do it our own way.” My question is, how is that working out? Our society, world, and culture have gone against the creator of the universe. It makes me think of the verse in Judges that says, “everyone did what was right in their own eyes.” That is exactly what our society is doing. It grieves me. I don’t want to point fingers at others, so I ask myself, “How have I left out God and tried to do things my own way?”
If I used my iPhone for things it is not intended to be used for, it breaks, and then I demand a refund because it broke, that would be crazy, right? Was I using it for what it was intended for in the first place? That scenario doesn’t make sense, does it? We are created by God, for God, and we as humans have gone against Him.
Reflection
Maybe I shouldn’t have done this podcast so quickly, I don’t want to be pointing fingers either. Please let me know what you think. These are all my initial thoughts in light of today’s breaking news. I think we have forsaken God. I believe we were/are created for a purpose. Through current events, political correctness, etc… we have forsaken God. I took a moment today to grieve. I paused, I prayed, and I looked at my baby kids in the living room and just thought “Man, life is short.” Can we take a moment to just grieve, pause, and stop pointing fingers?
Do You Still Have an Attitude of Gratitude?
I initially wanted to use this title, “taking a moment,” to reflect on Thanksgiving. I have a question for you, “Do you still have an attitude of gratitude?” Thanksgiving happens and then the very next day we are running out for Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday. Then, on the following Tuesday, we do Giving Tuesday. Why is that last after all of the other stuff-buying-days? If you have any money left after all of these shopping days, please consider donating to Proclaim Ministries. We currently have a matching grant where any money you donate will be DOUBLED! If you want to support us, please do!
Quote Of The Day
“Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.
This quote actually popped up as a memory on Facebook from 2012, but it is still so relevant. With a heart of gratitude, I can look back on my past and I can learn from and appreciate it. Even if it isn’t beautiful. Gratitude allows me to look back on my past and make sense of it. I can look back at my Momma making me go to summer school, which I HATED, and be grateful because I made my best friend in summer school! You can even look back at your past and be grateful for the fact you even have a past! Whenever I iron my clothes I can be thankful that my Momma made me iron and fold all my clothes when I was younger, whether I enjoyed it or not.
Gratitude brings peace for today because I can be grateful for what I have instead of focusing on what I don’t have. It doesn’t always have to be about being grateful for physical things either, it can be family, health, a home, and opportunities. When I focus on having gratitude, it alleviates the stress of having to get, get, get. It breaks the rat race of getting things to impress people you don’t even like. Dave Ramsey says it best when asked how he is doing, he replies “Better than I deserve.” Even if I wake up tired, I can be grateful because I woke up to a new day. The attitude of gratitude should continue in our lives past Thanksgiving. When you get in the car and it’s cold, be grateful you have hands to feel the cold. I know I need to be grateful for everything in my life. I encourage you to choose the attitude of gratitude. Because, when you make better choices, you will live a better life. So choose well. Oh yeah!
