More gun shots, more killings, more tears, more anger, more, more, more…

How much longer will this go on??!!

When I have been asked this question my answer has been, and I hope that I am wrong, “it will get much worse before we, as a nation, look at ourselves and say, ‘This has to stop.'”

It is not just a matter of easy access to guns. Although I believe that having them so readily available increases the potential for acts of violence in which they are used, it is not just a matter of guns.

It is our readiness to resort to violence that truly disturbs me. It is our fear of those who we see as being different than ourselves that frightens me. It is the fracturing of our nation along political lines, racial lines, religious lines and then exploiting those divides to stoke fear and hatred that terrifies me.

It is the willingness of some of our elected leaders to use that fear to maintain their place in office and the use of that fear to get elected to office that disheartens me.

It is the complacency of all too many people who sit on the sidelines just hoping and praying that things will get better and never doing anything more that frustrates me.

How long, O Lord, how long??!!

It will take as long as it takes for this nation to admit that we are sick and broken and resolve to stop blaming one another for our ills and begin to work together for the betterment of all.

Jesus said:  “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance.” (Luke 5:31-32 NRSV)