“He takes our dirt and makes a garden out of us… We don’t get the luxury of looking like Jesus and holding onto our hurts and our hate. We don’t get to say that we follow Jesus and then hoard to ourselves what He so freely gave. We don’t get to condemn the world that Jesus died to save.” –Hosanna Wong

These words are especially important to all of us as followers of Jesus these past few weeks. Our country has been clouded with tragedies- the murder of Christina Grimmie, the massacre at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, and a small boy killed by an alligator at Disney, to name a few.

Anger is automatic. Anger is easy and it is deserved. It doesn’t feel fair that our lives don’t always go the way we want them to. It’s not fair that a man can buy a military grade gun and kill dozens of innocent people. It’s not fair that another man can walk into a concert and shoot a girl who was only trying to live her dream. It’s not fair that a storm of unfortunate events can take away the life of a toddler. It seems that our world is falling apart faster every day. But anger is not enough.

My family did not begin going to church until I was six or seven years old. I remember that not long after we started attending, my mom began a sort of tradition with my sister and me. Whenever we saw an emergency vehicle- police car, ambulance, fire truck- we would immediately stop what we were doing and pray. I remember thinking of it as a formality- something we did because we should, not because it would really help.

It was not a formality. Prayer is powerful. It is a strong weapon and our direct line of communication with God. We cannot give up on prayers for this world. Jesus came to this Earth to try and save it. We cannot stop praying for something so important because we think it won’t matter.

Even so, we need to do more. We need to step out into the world as followers of Jesus and show people what He really represents. He is a God of overwhelming love more than anything. He loved every person inside of Pulse Nightclub so fierclely- it didn’t matter what their sexual orientiation was. And as much as we might not want to think about it, He loved Omar Mateen, too. Even when we reject him and do horrible things, it does not dull His love for us.

It is our responsibility to show this to people. It makes me sick to see people saying that the victims of the Orlando shooting could have deserved it because of their lifestyles. That is not what the Bible teaches. We need to give people the same grace that God gives to us every single day. It is not our job as believers to be judgmental- it is our job to love people, even if we do not agree with all their decisions. We are all sinners. Every one of us.

I am filled with sadness over the current state of our world. But I realize that my job is this: to give love, to give grace, and to try and change the world by showing people who God is.