From "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" :

Frodo: I can't do this, Sam.
Sam: I know. It's all wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be here. But we are. It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.
Frodo: What are we holding onto, Sam?
Sam: That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo... and it's worth fighting for.

During the weekend of June 10, America lost an incredibly talented and boisterous female singer, Christina Grimmie, and fifty plus Americans at Pulse Nightclub; both tragedies occurred in Orlando, Florida.

Christina Grimmie was a season 6 finalist on NBC's The Voice and placed third, signed with a successful record label, and continued to create incredible music that made the hair on your arm stand on end. Her talent was well-recognized before her success on The Voice, and was well known on YouTube for her many covers of other artists' popular songs. Her joy, bright spirit, and otherwise goofy attitude on social media never failed to make fans and followers laugh and sing along to her music. Her shining smile, positive outlook on her future, and faith in Christ make it so unfair that her 22-year-old, hopeful life was taken by 27-year-old Grimmie fan, Kevin James Loibl on June 11.

At 2 a.m. on June 12, gun shots rang out at Pulse Nightclub. Radical Islamist, 29 year old Omar Mateen called 911 to pledge his allegiance to terror group ISIS before the fallout of panic and bloodshed. Fourty-nine individuals died before the terror ended around 5 a.m., and Mateen was killed in the exchange of gunfire with law enforcement.

Mid-morning September 14, 2015 at Delta State University in Cleveland, MS, my public speaking class was swiftly escorted by drawn guns and law enforcement out of our building and told to run across our quad. We waited hours to find out what had happened, and tried for weeks to comprehend the loss of our great professor who was a husband and a father; an incredible man and friend to many with hope and potential, and stories left unfinished and untold. Our campus rallied together to mourn, to grieve, and to lean on one another for weeks and months to come. I know that our student body returned to a sense of normalcy in the following weeks, but our family-centered atmosphere and remembrance of Dr. Schmidt has since continued to grow.

To the Schmidt family, you are remembered and are often thought of with love and prayers.

Though my classmates and professors and I were not a part of a mass shooting, we shared in the panic, tears, and painful comprehension that senseless shootings cause. The moment you feel your shoes beating against the ground as you run, and feel your heart pounding almost outside of your chest, you know you won't be able to comprehend what has happened for days to come. How could anyone grasp it in that moment? You hear the news, you see the video recordings, you know what happened, but it doesn't quite feel real until the world keeps spinning and you're still glued to the same spot in which the tragedy occurred.

As news anchors read out the names of victims and broadcasted more information about the on-going developments in the Pulse Nightclub investigation, I thought about how it all sounded too familiar. Every week, our nation has a mass shooting resulting in the loss of precious life - life that my Jesus Christ loved and life that He wanted to seek Him and His undying love. Why are mass shootings that resulted in so much loss of life quickly turned into a political agenda and new propaganda that blurs the lives taken? Why have we stopped recognizing the actual life, the empty body once held? The life that went to McDonalds and paid for the person behind them, the life that took their child to soccer practice, the life that couldn't wait for her husband to come home from work, the life that could sing, run, dance, play, laugh, and hug? We forget that the life they carried in their bodily frame meant something more than politics and policies.

Tragedies like these always remind me of what Jesus has called and commanded my life to do: to go and make disciples, to love, to sacrifice, to endure, to have faith, to trust, to believe, to have hope, to spread joy, to share the good news, and to remember He is Lord of all. In the midst of turmoil, pain, politics, angry antics, demanding policy-turnovers, and shouted words, our Sovereign King remains. He remains true, faithful, holy, good, unending, all-knowing, omniscient, loving, caring, nurturing, disciplining, and watchful. He remains the same as our people collide in argument and anger. He remains the same whether He is blamed or He is called a burden by His own children. He remains the same whether He is worshipped or not. He is Alpha and Omega. He promises not to leave His children. He promises to come for us and not to leave us here in this sin-wrought world in our sinful states.

Despite the news that seems to condemn us all to Hell and promises that these are the end of times, I hold fast to hope. Call me foolish, call me ignorant. I believe in the saving hope and love of Christ, and I believe in His promises. I believe that this world will not be destroyed until every nation and tribe knows of His great majesty (Matthew 24:14) and I believe in what He spoke to be true in John 16:33, "I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

Oh, America, the Alpha and Omega has overcome every trial, every tribulation and temptation, every painful piercing shot, every politician, every enemy, every weapon, every law, and every coming sorrow. He has overcome the world.