This time it was knives.
A student rampaged through the halls of Franklin Regional High School, slashing with two long knives. Leaving a trail of blood and 22 wounded victims.
So Murrysville, Pa. joins the list no one wants to be on. Like Newtown, Fort Hood - places where one angry person changes lives and families forever.
5 Sobering Lessons for Those Who Follow Jesus
Not again.
That was my gut reaction when I saw the headline about another shooting at Fort Hood. I couldn't believe it when they said the previous shooting on the base was five years ago. Seems like yesterday.
The story's getting sadder and sadder as it unfolds. It was a soldier killing soldiers. On a base filled with men and women who have heroically had multiple tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Survivors of war zones and enemy attacks. Wounded and killed at home. By one of their own. Who may have carried invisible wounds of his own.
During this year’s NCAA basketball “Final Four” season, billionaire Warren Buffett offered $1 billion to anyone who filled out the perfect bracket (correctly picking all the NCAA game winners).
He did that because he knew no matter how well you know sports, your chances of picking a perfect bracket are, according to UMKC math lecturer Ari Bavel, 9.2 quintillion to one. You’re literally more likely to be mauled by a shark than nail this thing! Why is it so hard to pick the perfect bracket? Because sometimes the “experts” are wrong. Sometimes the underdog wins.
Noah really stirred things up when he was here.
Now he's doing it again. On the big screen.
Noah and his ark - the movie version - had a big launch this past weekend. Captain Noah still has the ability to be controversial.
Mostly among Bible people. Some of them are objecting to all that the movie adds to and subtracts from the original account. While others are hopeful it will interest un-Bible people in the real Story.
I find it interesting that thousands of years later, Jesus was talking about Noah.
The big boat's making big waves again.
Noah's Ark rides again. And this time Hollywood's hoping it will bring in a flood. Of money. As a blockbuster movie.
Word is that this telling of the iconic story starts with the Bible account. And adds a heavy dose of Hollywood imagination. With great special effects. Probably no match, though, for the original.
With Noah showing up in ads on TV all the time, it's made me go back to the non-fiction, original narrative. Bible-style.
A group of girls at a slumber party. A plumber installing a hot water heater. A nurse enjoying her new home - her first home.
All in the path of a sea of mud that, without warning, suddenly engulfed a full square mile of Oso, Washington. They are among the 176 people currently "unaccounted for." With 14 known to be lost as of now. It's hard to watch.
Thankfully, seven people were rescued. Not many in light of the missing or lost. But seven more than would be alive if it weren't for the rescuers.
And plunging into that 15-20' deep mountain of mud required a mountain of courage. Geologists call it "quicksand." That didn't stop the rescuers.
I should have saved my DVRs of the Winter Olympics. I liked the news from Russia a lot better back then. As soon as the fireworks in Sochi ended, the fireworks in Ukraine began. And suddenly part of Ukraine is part of Russia. Hello?
And with Russia flexing its expansionist muscles, I'm hearing those two words again. Words we thought we buried in the '80s.
Cold War.
Where are Malaysia Air 370 and its 239 passengers? I can't remember a time when so many nations - 26 so far - have mounted a search-and-rescue effort. Across such a wide swath of the world.
To search for - and, if possible - save people who are lost.
As I was watching the unfolding news...and praying - God seemed to say to me, "There's something else I want you to see here."
Suddenly I was hearing in my heart the words of Jesus - that He had come "to seek and to save the lost" (Luke 19:10).
This lost plane is just sad beyond words. None of the "experts" can remember a time when a plane full of passengers has so totally vanished.
And none of the people who love those passengers could ever have imagined the nightmare they're living right now.
Jerked around by one theory, one "sighting," one dashed hope after another.
As a "frequent flyer," I've flown a lot of miles over the years. All over the world. So the eerie disappearance of Malaysia Air 370 hits a little too close to home.
