What now after Uvalde?

James 1:19-20
¹⁹ My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, ²⁰ because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. (NIV)

What now after Uvalde?

For those who do not know, the church I pastor also has a campus in Uvalde, Texas. The staff and I spent the evening in Uvalde available for prayer and counseling to the families affected. As I am writing this, we are currently driving back there now and our campus pastor there is already engaged in ministry. The big question is what now?

The natural reaction to a tragedy such as this is judgment, condemnation, and blame. But as the people of God, we have been called to bring the presence of God into every situation we walk into. Inevitably, we are going to hear all sorts of blame about who did not do their job. We will hear political blame about laws and gun control. This tragedy will be used by so many to further their agenda. But we are called to love our neighbor as ourselves. Our first posture must be love, patience, and forbearance.

Then we must pray. As soon as we posted on our social media asking for prayer for the city of Uvalde, a random person made a comment saying, “If prayer worked, these kids would not have died.” This misunderstanding about God’s work in the world can easily lead many people to bitterness, doubt, and complete rejection of God.

Last night, one mother notified of her child’s loss cursed God as her husband carried her out of the building. She was so overwhelmed, that she could not stand. It is understandable to question God at a time like that. I can’t even imagine, but this is the struggle the world has. If God is good, how can He allow such evil to continue? So we pray for people that they would not lose their faith.

God’s love for us has not made robots of humanity, but He has given us a choice to love or reject Him. When humanity refuses God’s love, the result is sin and wickedness. We cannot control this, but we can pray for people. I would suggest prayer over these children allowed for an off-duty Border Patrol agent to be available quickly or more lives would have been lost. I believe it was prayer that restricted evil from running wild unimpeded whatsoever. So we must pray.

Pray for families to find or renew their faith during this time. We know that something like this is too terrible for our own ability to cope and heal. But God is our healer. What now after Uvalde? We pray.